Former RPF constable Chetansinh Chaudhary who killed his senior and three Muslim men aboard the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express in a hate crime on July 31, had a history of assaulting Muslims.
The former constable had abused and assaulted a Muslim auto driver in Ujjain in 2016.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, over a span of several months between 2016 and 17, Chaudhary repeatedly threatened the auto driver named Wajid Khan.
Wajid Khan, recalling the abuse he suffered at the hands of Chetansinh Chaudhary, said Khan would board his auto from Ujjain railway station, where he was posted in the dog squad at RPF and pressurize him to drive to far locations and would barely pay him.
On days, when Khan couldn't provide Chaudhary rides owing to personal circumstances, the latter insulted him, calling him a ‘traitor’ and a ‘terrorist,’ and that 'Muslims belonged in prison.'
Khan later filed a complaint with RPF officers in February 2017 after Chaudhary physically assaulted him.
The auto driver also said that one day when he was in the train station to drop off a pair of spectacles to a senior officer, Chetansinh detained him for an hour in the station. Chaudhury had claimed that Khan was ‘roaming around’ in the train station without a platform ticket when he in fact he had torn the platform ticket provided by Khan.
He kept hitting me and said he would implicate me in a case, Khan recounted.
Following the complaint, an inquiry was launched and Chaudhary was found guilty. He was sent for training in Kerala and was later transferred to Bhavnagar in Gujarat.
Meanwhile, PTI quoted an RPF officer as saying that Chaudhury was involved in at least three discipline-related incidents in the past.