Knife attack in Mumbai local: Man stabs neighbour on train, families show unity in hospital

MUMBAI: An unusual scene of solidarity played out on Thursday at Sion Hospital as the family of a man who allegedly stabbed his neighbour multiple times in a moving train stood alongside the victim's relatives.

The incident occurred on Tuesday morning. According to police, Rajesh Arunvihari (21) attacked Siraj Shaikh (24) with a knife, striking him on the neck, chest, and back inside a CSMT-Panvel train near Vashi station in Navi Mumbai.



Two days after the incident, Arunvihari remains at large, having managed to escape by jumping from the moving train. Shaikh was first rushed to NMMC Hospital in Vashi and was subsequently transferred to Sion Hospital, where doctors said on Thursday he was out of danger. What followed the violence, however, was a show of unity between the two families, who live side by side in Cheetah Camp. They are still trying to piece together a motive for the sudden assault. Even Shaikh, they said, had no explanation.

"We have never quarrelled. We have been neighbours for decades," said Rajalaxmi Rajendran, Arunvihari's mother.

The Vashi Govt Railway Police (GRP) have filed an FIR in the case with an attempt to murder charge. Three police teams have been formed to trace the accused.

Rajendran described her son as having battled addiction for the last few years. "We are certain about alcohol," she said. "We also spotted him consume some white powder." In an attempt to help him, the family sent him to a private de-addiction centre in Virar a few months ago. He returned home in Nov and has since secured a sanitation job in Sanpada.

Shaikh's brother said that in the neighbourhood, Arunvihari was known to stalk a woman, but the behaviour was considered a sign of mental illness by those around. Kiran Undre, senior inspector of Vashi GRP, said that according to the victim's statement, Arunvihari was involved in an altercation with a woman in their locality when Sheikh's brother intervened and supported the woman. "Arunvihari might have nursed a grudge and attacked Siraj in the local train," Undre said.

Mubarak Khan, a colleague who was travelling with Shaikh at the time of the incident, said they suddenly began spotting Arunvihari around the station or inside the train with them over the past few days. "We were on our phones scrolling through reels when the incident happened. There was no prior altercation," Khan said.



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