Badlapur station shooting: Accused booked for attempt to murder
Thane (PTI): The railway police in Maharashtra’s Thane district have registered an attempt-to-murder case against a 25-year-old man after he allegedly opened fire at two persons at Badlapur station and injured one of them, an official said on Friday.
The incident, which police said was the fallout of business rivalry, took place at platform number 1 at around 6 pm on Thursday when the suburban station on the Central Railway route was chock-a-block with commuters.
Senior Inspector Pandhari Kande of the Kalyan GRP (Government Railway Police) said an FIR has been registered against the arrested accused Vikas Nana Pagare for attempt to murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under the Arms Act.
Police are also trying to find out if more people were involved in the shooting besides Pagare.
The incident was captured on cameras and a video of it went viral on social media within minutes.
After opening fire, Pagare ran towards railway tracks in his attempt to flee, but he was chased and pinned down by policemen on duty with the help of some commuters.
Police identified the injured person as Shankar Sansare, while the second man targeted by Pagare escaped unhurt, but his identity was not revealed.
Sansare was rushed to a local hospital, where he was treated for gunshot wounds, said the GRP.
The assailant and also the duo he targeted have criminal records and the firing was linked to professional rivalry over TV cable business between them in the area, said the police, citing preliminary probe.
Initially, there was a fight between Pagare and the duo outside the railway station. As Sansare ran inside the station, the gunman followed him and fired at him and the other person accompanying him from his revolver, they said.
The GRP have sent the revolver and pellets for forensic analysis.
Badlapur was under the spotlight last month after two kindergarten girls were allegedly sexually assaulted by a male attendant at a private school there. The incident triggered a massive protest in the town, with thousands of people blocking trains at Badlapur station on August 20.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
