Mumbai, April 8 The widow of a victim in the 2023 railway firing incident on Wednesday appealed to the sessions court to overturn its order directing a fresh mental health evaluation for the accused, former RPF constable Chetan Singh Chaudhary.
The application, filed through advocates Karim Pathan, Fazal and Shehzad Pathan, stated that the accused was "misusing the judicial process" to stall the trial, which is in an advanced stage.
Chaudhary is accused of shooting dead his senior colleague, Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena, and three Muslim passengers on board the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express near Palghar railway station in Maharashtra on July 31, 2023.
Citing a prior medical report, Umesa Khatoon, wife of the victim Asgar Shaikh, claimed that the accused's "mental fitness had already been conclusively determined".
The District Mental Health Review Board, Thane, had conducted a comprehensive mental health assessment of the accused and concluded that he was mentally stable and fit to stand trial. Therefore, a fresh assessment was not warranted, the application stated.
Additional sessions judge (Dindoshi court) Pravin Chatur on March 25 directed the prison authorities to send Chaudhary to the Thane mental hospital and submit a report with a specific opinion "as to whether he is fit to stand trial".
The order followed Chaudhary's bail plea, which cited mental health conditions.
Umesa Khatoon's intervention application stated that the court had previously denied him bail on medical grounds, and he had submitted the same medical documents in his fresh bail application. This application contained only a bald assertion of mental illness without any supporting evidence.
The court has already examined 18 witnesses, and adjourning the trial for a fresh medical assessment would prejudice the prosecution's case, the plea stated.
Chaudhary's actions – identifying and targeting victims based on their religion while sparing others – showed that he was "in complete control of his faculties" during the incident, and the plea of unsound mind was an afterthought, the application stated.