The killing of 17-year- old Junaid Khan on a train here last month was not because of the beef issue, a senior police official said today, while claiming that the main accused arrested yesterday has "confessed" to having stabbed the victim.
The accused, who works as a security guard in a Delhi firm, was arrested from Dhule district of Maharashtra yesterday, about a fortnight after the June 22 incident which had triggered a nationwide outrage as it was reportedly linked to the beef issue.
The 30-year-old main accused, a resident of Palwal in Haryana who was identified by his lawyer as Naresh Kumar, was today produced before a court which sent him to a two-day police remand.Duty Magistrate Sandeep Kumar recorded his statement during his production today.
"During his questioning so far, the main accused has confessed to having stabbed Junaid and attacking his brothers," Superintendent of Police (Railways) Kamaldeep Goyal said addressing a press conference here.Goyal was asked about the allegations that Junaid and his brothers had been attacked by a group of people over the issue of beef. "The issue of beef (being the cause of the murder) has not come to the fore in the questioning of the main accused so far," he replied.
The SP added that even the complainant, in his statement, had not mentioned beef being the reason for the fight on board the train in which Junaid was killed.He said the accused had boarded the Mathura-bound train from Shivaji bridge station in Delhi.The fight between the victim and his brothers and the accused in the train started at Okhla railway station in Delhi while the stabbing took place at a station Ballabgarh onwards, the SP said.
Replying to a question, Goyal said the main fight had started between the victim and another man Rameshwar, who was arrested earlier in the case.
The SP said the main accused joined the fight later even though he did not know Rameshwar.The knife used for killing Junaid has not been recovered so far, he said, adding the accused had told the police that it was in his possession. "His consent will be sought for Test Identification Parade before court," Goyal said.
"It is an open investigation and only after thorough interrogation of the accused will the complete sequence of events in the case come to fore," the SP said, replying to a question about sequence of events which led to Junaid's killing."Time limit for this investigation cannot be fixed. Whatever facts we could share have been shared, but in the interest of investigation revealing more facts at this stage will not be appropriate.
We will share these facts as and when they become clear," he added.