The police said the accused worked as a security guard at a private firm in Delhi
A 28-year-old man, who allegedly stabbed a Muslim teen to death on a Delhi-Mathura train last month, was sent to two days of police custody on Sunday after he reportedly confessed to the crime that had sparked nationwide outrage. The victim's family demanded the death penalty to accused Naresh Rakh who was arrested on Saturday from Maharashtra's Dhule district and later brought to Delhi. The police said the accused worked as a security guard at a private firm in Delhi.
On June 22, Junaid (16) was killed, while his brothers Sakir (22) and Hashim (19), besides their friend Moin (19), were wounded when they were returning to their village Khandavali in Haryana's Ballabgarh after shopping for Eid in Delhi.
A mob turned on the four, first after a tiff over seats, and then pulled off their skull caps and tugged their beard, yelling they were "anti-nationals" and "beef-eaters".
The lynching made national headlines as it came amid an outrage over a wave of attacks on people accused of eating beef or slaughtering cows.
The murder weapon and blood-stained clothes of the accused are yet to be recovered, said railway police official Kamaldeep. Hashim had earlier told the police that the killer had almost one-foot-long knife-like thing, which was sharp at both ends.
The police said Rakh had no connection with the five persons arrested earlier. "He boarded the train at Shivaji Bridge railway station in Delhi and joined those already having a scuffle with Junaid and others," said an officer.
The police said the fight first erupted over seats, but admitted that religious slurs were hurled at the victims.
The police scanned mobile phones active on the crime route on June 22 and zeroed in on one number. The suspected knifeman first hid at his relative's place in UP's Mathura and then fled to Dhule to look for a job.
Junaid's father Jalaluddin Khan demanded that the accused must be hanged and said all others involved in the lynching must be arrested. "Such incidents are happening every day in all parts of the country. There is an atmosphere of fear." Junaid's mother also demanded the capital punishment.
Protests over growing cases of cow vigilantism and mob frenzy recently prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee to urge people not to take law into their hands.
Villagers in Khandavali shunned Eid celebrations on June 26 and tied black bands on their arms to protest the lynching, demanding justice for Junaid and other victims.
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