The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Sunday arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly stabbing a college lecturer to death “in a fit of rage” after a dispute inside a crowded local train at the Malad railway station in Mumbai the previous evening.

The accused, Omkar Eknath Shinde, a resident of Kurar village in Malad (east), was arrested early Sunday morning after police tracked his movements using CCTV footage and railway surveillance systems.

The victim, Alok Kumar Singh (32), a lecturer at NM College in Vile Parle who was also from Kurar, was travelling on a Borivali-bound train on Saturday evening when an argument allegedly broke out between him and Shinde over getting off at the Malad station.

“During the argument, the accused stabbed Singh on the left side of his abdomen with a sharp object and fled the spot, taking advantage of the heavy rush on the platform,” said a senior GRP officer.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred around 5.40 pm when the train halted at platform number one. Singh was rushed to Shatabdi Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Singh’s father, Anil Kumar Singh, is part of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s security detail and was in Delhi on duty when he was informed about his son’s death. The family said Saturday was Singh’s wife’s birthday, and he had planned to take her out for dinner after work.

During interrogation, Shinde, who runs a small rented shop selling imitation jewellery in Tamge Gali in the Grant Road area, allegedly confessed that he had stabbed Singh with a tweezer he used for work.

“In a fit of rage during the argument, he stabbed Singh in the abdomen while getting down from the train at Malad. He told us he did not realise the injury would be so deep or that the passenger would die. After stabbing him, he ran away fearing that people would assault him,” said police sub-inspector Prakash Salunkhe, detection officer at GRP Borivali, who was part of the team that apprehended the accused.

A native of Ratnagiri, Shinde lives with his parents and elder brother Amar. His father is a heart patient, his mother is a homemaker, and his brother works in a private firm.

Soon after the incident, the GRP registered a case of murder and formed five special teams to trace the accused. Officers scanned footage from nearly 200 CCTV cameras at Malad station and in surrounding areas, including Dindoshi and Kurar.

“We traced the movement of the accused through multiple CCTV cameras from Malad station up to the Western Express Highway. Using the railway’s Face Recognition System, we also learned that he was a regular commuter between Malad and Charni Road,” said a detection officer from Borivali GRP.

Police said Shinde usually boarded the 7.18 am train from Malad and returned by the 4.16 pm train from Charni Road. Based on this routine, a team was deployed near an autorickshaw stand in Malad on Sunday morning.

“At around 7.40 am, he was seen getting down from an autorickshaw near the Malad railway station and was immediately apprehended,” the detection officer said.

“CCTV footage showed him panicking and fleeing across the foot overbridge at Malad station. All facts were verified before his arrest,” said Senior Inspector Khuperkar of Borivali GRP. Shinde was produced before a local court and remanded in police custody till January 29.

Singh had been teaching Mathematics and Statistics at NM College for the past two years. He had earlier taught at a Malad-based college and an international school in Andheri. He held BSc and MSc degrees in Mathematics from Mumbai University, had completed his BEd and cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test. He had married two years ago, and his wife is currently pursuing her BEd.

Singh’s father reached Mumbai on Sunday morning. “The Defence Minister assured me that he has spoken to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to ensure that strict action is taken in this case,” he said outside Bhagwati Hospital mortuary, where the body was kept for postmortem.

Meanwhile, relatives of Singh questioned how a passenger could carry a sharp object inside a local train. “Arguments in trains are common, but who carries a weapon? Our family has lost a young man who had his whole life ahead of him,” a relative said.

A Western Railway spokesperson said, “The incident occurred at around 5.44 pm after the train entered platform number 1. Railway officials and the station master at Malad reached the spot within minutes and rushed Alok Singh to Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali West in an ambulance at around 5.58 pm. The medical officer at Shatabdi Hospital examined him and declared him dead at 6.15 pm.”