Masked man stabs TTE, others on Chalukya Express and flees; one dead, 2 seriously injured

BELAGAVI: A catering attendant died while four others were badly injured, two of them seriously, after a masked passenger stabbed them when the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) asked him to produce his ticket on board the Chalukya Express. The incident occurred in coach No. S8 (Train No. 11006) near Londa in Khanapur taluk on Thursday evening.

The catering attendant was stabbed in the chest by the masked passenger.

The deceased was identified as Devarishi Varma (23), hailing from Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh. Varma tried to intervene when the masked passenger attacked the TTE and was stabbed in the chest. Three passengers and the TTE, Ashraf Ali, were injured in the incident. The condition of two of the injured is said to be serious. They have been admitted to the district government hospital in Belagavi.

Two of the injured passengers.

The Pondicherry-Mumbai Chalukya Express train was on its way from Dharwad to Belagavi when the incident occurred. The masked passenger stabbed the TTE and a few other passengers when asked to produce his ticket and fled. “I asked to see the ticket near Alnawar and the passenger claimed that it was with his relatives. When I asked him to show where they were seated, he attacked me with a knife and fled when I pulled the chain to nab him”, said TTE Ashraf Ali.

The injured were shifted to hospital in Belagavi.

Shivanand, a passenger, said, “The masked man was the lone attacker. He attacked the TTE when he was asked to produce the ticket. I and two other passengers tried to intervene, but he attacked the two and ran towards the A/C compartment”.

The Railway Police have registered a case and have taken up investigation.