MUMBAI: Omkar Shinde, the 27-year-old arrested for the murder of a college teacher over a trivial spat inside a local train at Malad, was brought back to the scene of the crime for a re-enactment by the Govt Railway Police (GRP) on Wednesday. In a separate development, police also recovered the murder weapon from Shinde on Wednesday.Shinde is accused of stabbing co-passenger Alok Kumar Singh, 33, in the abdomen following an argument over alighting at Malad station on Saturday evening. Singh was a lecturer at the Narsee Monjee College in Vile Parle and was headed home when the incident took place around 5.45 pm.Shinde was taken to Malad railway station on Wednesday afternoon by a team from the Borivli GRP. The accused took the police team along the foot overbridge that he took after the crime. The re-enactment aims to gather more evidence and clarify the events that led to the stabbing incident.Shinde previously told the police that he threw away the murder weapon-a small pair of tongs used to pick jewels-within the railway premises at Malad after the crime. Police officials looked for the weapon and recovered it on Wednesday. It will be sent for forensic analysis. If the victim’s blood is found on the weapon, it will serve as crucial evidence for the prosecution.Police are now gathering additional evidence to build a watertight case against Shinde. They recorded the statement of Singh’s colleague, Sudhir Kumar Trivedi, who accompanied him on the train and witnessed the stabbing. Police are also recording the statement of station master Mohammad Nasarullah Ansari, who attended to Singh on the platform at Malad station. “We will also look for other independent witnesses among commuters who were travelling in the same compartment at the time,” said a police officer.Shinde told investigators that his intention was not to kill, but only to hurt Singh following their altercation. He claimed that someone in the crowd pulled his hair and he presumed it was Singh, as they were bickering over getting off at Malad.
