MUMBAI: A day after 30-year-old Roshan Babu Suvarna was arrested by Borivali Government Railway Police (GRP) for allegedly killing 22-year-old Mayank Ramesh Lohar inside a moving suburban local between Malad and Borivali late on Tuesday night, preliminary investigations revealed that Suvarna is reportedly a habitual drinker who confessed to consuming a bottle of rum before his journey home on Tuesday night. A short-tempered man, he was known to pick quarrels with watchmen and auto drivers over petty issues. Police also noted that the kitchen knife he used to stab Lohar multiple times was newly bought.
The accused, arrested in Panvel while trying to flee to his hometown, Mangaluru, was produced before the Borivali magistrate court on Thursday, where GRP officers sought his seven-day custody, arguing they needed time to recover the knife he discarded after stepping out of Borivali station. The court, however, remanded the accused to police custody for five days.
An HSC dropout
An unmarried man, Suvarna lives in a rented apartment in Meghdoot Tower, Saibaba Nagar, Mira Road, with his parents and brother. An HSC dropout, he has been working with his father as a barcode manufacturer in Andheri for the past five years.
After telling the police about his son’s drinking habit and quick temper, the accused’s father Babu Suvarna, 65, said that when his son returned home late on Tuesday night, the family did not think anything was amiss, as returning home after midnight was routine. “Sometime later, he changed his clothes, put the worn clothes in his backpack and left the house, saying he was going to his maternal uncle’s house in Panvel and planned to go to Mangaluru from there,” said a police officer.
GRP officers first traced Suvarna through CCTV footage from Borivali railway station which showed him boarding an autorickshaw from the station’s east side. They followed the rickshaw’s path aided by footage from traffic signals which led them to his house in Mira Road. When they showed the footage to Babu, he recognised his son and told the police about his plans to leave for Mangaluru from Panvel. After taking his phone number from Babu, the police tracked him to Panvel.
Accused’s confession
“While Suvarna has confessed to his crime, he has refused to cooperate with the police about where he discarded the knife,” said Dattaray Khuperkar, senior police inspector of Borivali GRP. As thorough search of the house to find the weapon of crime was futile, police believe he may have discarded it after stepping out of Borivali station.
All Suvarna told the police is that he got the knife from a friend who works for an online retail aggregator. He would sell off household commodities that customers returned to make extra money on the side. Suvarna bought the knife for ₹50 from the friend and was taking it home on Tuesday night.
An eyewitness from the first class coach shared with police, as it was raining hard on Tuesday night, passengers who were seated requested Lohar to shut the doors but as he attempted to do it Suvarna objected which led to an altercation between the two. As the quarrel escalated, a few passengers punched Suvarna near the eye and took Lohar to the other end of the coach.
An agitated Suvarna then removed the knife from his bag, tore off the paper cover and attacked Lohar, uttering abuses, said a police officer. He added, eyewitnesses shared that “seeing blood and the knife, other scared passengers could do nothing to save the young man; everything happened very fast.”
“A test identification parade will be conducted of the passengers who saw the accused in the train,” said the police officer.
He did not seem aggressive: Relative
Dhananjay Suvarna, a distant relative of the accused, who helped the family rent the Mira Road flat, said the family has been living in the neighbourhood since 2022. Suvarna had approached him to rent an apartment in the suburb for three years, saying that his house in Vakola was going for redevelopment.
“The incident has caused a stir in the locality,” Dhananjay said. “We have met a few times to renew the rent agreement but I never saw any trace of aggression in him. The rental agreement is valid till 2027. The family pays ₹15,000 in rent and has paid a security deposit of ₹50,000.”
