MUMBAI: A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death inside the first-class compartment of a Churchgate-Nalasopara local train on Tuesday night, following an altercation with a fellow passenger over closing the coach’s doors to protect against a heavy downpour. The tragedy comes just five months after a 33-year-old Mumbai college professor was knifed to death by a 27-year-old daily wage labourer over a dispute about space in a crowded local train. The accused in the case was arrested, a chargesheet has been filed and a trial is expected to begin soon.
The incidents underscore the need for security systems across Mumbai’s local trains, which service 80 lakh people every day.
The victim of Tuesday night’s attack, Mayank Lohar – a Virar resident who worked as a salesman at retail chain Westside’s Andheri outlet — succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Wednesday. Hours after the incident, the Borivali government railway police (GRP) nabbed the assailant, identified as Roshan Suvarna, 30, in Panvel.
According to an officer from GRP, Lohar was on his way home after his shift, when an argument broke out between him and Suvarna, who had also boarded the train at Andheri at 10:42 pm, over shutting the doors of the compartment, where both stood. Lohar wanted the door shut while Suvarna insisted on keeping it open.
The argument between the two escalated between Andheri and Borivali, said Dattaray Khuperkar, senior police inspector of Borivali railway police station, based on eyewitness accounts. Other passengers, who witnessed the incident intervened and attempted to pacify an aggressive Suvarna, who refused to calm down. Some tried to reason with him, asserting that everyone in the coach was getting drenched by the splash of rain. When Suvarna remained stubborn, in order to end the quarrel and protect Lohar from his hostility, a few passengers encouraged him to stand by the opposite entrance of the coach. None of the approximately 50 passengers in the coach however attempted to physically restrain Suvarna.
Suvarna, nonetheless, continued his verbal abuse against Lohar, and between Goregaon and Malad stations, he allegedly unzipped his bag, pulled out a knife and walked up to Lohar to stab him in the chest and stomach three to four times.
As the train was pulling into Borivali railway station’s platform number 6 at around 11.04 pm, Suvarna jumped off the coach and fled even before the train came to a complete halt.
Western Railway authorities said that around 11.07pm a team of GRP and RPF personnel reached the coach to attend to an injured Lohar. A medical assistance team reached the coach soon to rush the victim to the Emergency Medical Room (EMR) at Borivali station. After a preliminary treatment there, he was shifted to Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali, where died while being treated at midnight.
Khuperkar said that after registering a case of murder against the then unidentified attacker, seven teams were formed which scanned footage of over 40 CCTV cameras from Borivali to Panvel, following which Suvarna was identified and arrested in Panvel.
Suvarna, a Mira-Bhayandar resident, is a barcode maker who worked in the packaging section of the cargo hub of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
“We got the description of the accused through the video recordings of passengers showing him brandishing the knife. After attacking Lohar, the accused dressed in a pair of black trousers and a black shirt, paced the compartment restlessly carrying the knife in his hand,” said Khuperkar, adding that police is yet to recover the knife. They suspect that the accused may have discarded it while escaping.
An investigating officer said while Suvarna has no past record of crime, they found he had picked a quarrel with an autorickshaw driver outside Andheri station over fare before he boarded the train. In his statement to the police the accused claimed that Lohar had punched him in his face in the middle of their altercation.
Suvarna will be produced in Borivali magistrate court on Thursday.
This incident highlights the need to establish security measures, such as increased vigilance and patrolling in long distance trains, a proposal made by GRP commissioner of police Rakesh Kalasagar in June 2025. The proposals came after RPF official Chetan Singh gunned down passengers in a Mumbai-Jaipur Central Express in 2024, and knife-wielding robbers targeted a Jogeshwari-based family travelling on the Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast Express on June 1, 2025.
Constables are posted in ladies compartments of Mumbai’s locals for security, while RPF and GRP officials patrol the platforms.
