Mumbai Police arrest absconding accused in stabbing case after three-day manhunt

Mumbai, June 29 (IANS) After a three-day manhunt, the Mahim Police have arrested the accused who allegedly launched a life-threatening knife attack on a 35-year-old man, Naveen Prasanna, outside Mumbai’s Mahim Railway Station following a minor altercation.

The accused, identified as 19-year-old Anas Ansari, was arrested from Mumbai’s Wadala area. Police are still searching for the knife used in the crime, which has not yet been recovered.

A senior police official said that the arrest was made after investigators examined footage from more than 100 CCTV cameras to trace the accused’s movements.

Based on the surveillance footage, the police tracked Ansari to Wadala, where he was apprehended. During the investigation, police learned that the accused had allegedly discarded the knife after the attack. Efforts are underway to recover the weapon, and Ansari is currently being interrogated.

The accused had been absconding since the violent incident, which took place on the night of June 25. According to the police, Ansari is originally from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. A case has been registered against him under Sections 109(1), 352, and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the police, the victim, Naveen Prasanna, is a resident of Qureshi Mahal Compound in Pitambar Lane, Mahim, and works as an office boy at a private company in Lower Parel.

On the night of June 25, at around 10 p.m., Prasanna was returning home after work. He had travelled from Lower Parel to Mahim by a slow local train. While walking through the station premises, he accidentally bumped into another man, causing the mobile phone in the latter’s hand to fall to the ground.

Although Prasanna immediately apologised for the accidental collision, the accused allegedly became enraged, chased him, and attacked him with a knife. Prasanna sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Sion Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.

The latest incident follows another shocking case reported on June 22, in which 22-year-old Mayank Lohar was allegedly stabbed to death inside a moving Mumbai local train following an argument over whether the coach door should remain open during heavy rainfall.

According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), Lohar and the accused, Roshan Suvarna, had boarded the train at Andheri station. The argument escalated while the train was travelling between Andheri and Borivali stations, after which Suvarna allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Lohar in the abdomen, leaving him critically injured. The 30-year-old accused was later arrested from Kurla following a citywide manhunt involving six Railway Police teams.

–IANS

jk/dpb