Junaid Khan lynching: Four more including 50-yr-old arrested

Chandigarh, Jun 28:Four persons, including a 50- year-old man, were arrested today in connection with the stabbing of a Muslim youth onboard a Mathura-bound train, an incident which had led to led nation-wide outrage.

With the fresh arrests, the total number of accused persons held in the case has risen to five, the police said even though the man who had stabbed 17-year-old Junaid is still at large.

"We have arrested four more persons, including three youths, who are aged between 24-30 years and one 50-year-old man," Kamaldeep Goel, the Superintendent of Police (SP), Government Railway Police (GRP), Faridabad, told PTI over the phone.

The sequence of events which led to the killing of the 17-year-old has also become clear to a large extent, he said.

According to Goel, it was the 50-year-old man arrested today who had entered into an altercation with Junaid and his brothers over seat sharing.

"Our investigations show that this man entered into an argument with the victim and his brothers from Okhla over seat sharing. He passed some remarks hurting the victims' religious sentiments. However the quarrel escalated after three youth, who had boarded the train at New Town Faridabad, also entered the fight," the SP said.

Asked if the person who had stabbed Junaid had been arrested, the Goel replied in the negative but added that the police had "got crucial leads and he too will be in custody soon".

Junaid was stabbed to death while his brothers - Hashim and Sakir - were injured by a mob which allegedly hurled slurs against them onboard the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations last Thursday night.

Junaid's body was dumped near Asaoti village in Faridabad district.

The killing was widely condemned. On Monday, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had condemned the incident and appealed to the people to maintain peace.

Union Information and Broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today that any incident of such nature is condemnable, brutal and atrocious.

The police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for credible information leading to the arrest of the accused persons.

The one accused who was arrested earlier and remanded to judicial custody by a court in Faridabad district, had earlier, while speaking to reporters alleged that he was in an inebriated state and had attacked the teenager on being instigated by fellow passengers