The family of the accused in the Junaid murder case on Monday said he was innocent and was being framed by the police in their hurry to solve the case.
Talking to The Hindu over phone, accused Ramesh’s brother-in-law Vinod Kumar maintained that he was at Palwal railway station around 7 p.m., when the incident happened.
‘Contradiction’
“He was waiting to catch a train to his factory in Ballabgarh. This contradicts the police claim that he boarded the train from Ballabgarh railway station around the same time and stabbed Junaid on being provoked by co-passengers,” said Mr. Kumar, adding that a vendor friend of Ramesh had confirmed this.
Ramesh is a resident of Kailash Nagar near Palwal railway station and is married. He has three daughters and a son.
Mr. Kumar also said that Ramesh was illiterate and had no previous criminal record.
‘Maintains innocence’
“Anyone in his village can vouch for his innocence. It seems the police have framed him in a hurry to work out the case,” said Mr. Kumar. Though Junaid’s family has identified Ramesh as being present at the time of incident, they too have maintained that he did not stab the teenager,” said Mr. Kumar
Haryana Railway Police SP Kamal Deep Goyal, however, claimed Ramesh had confessed to the crime.
“We have evidence against the accused. He was arrested after proper verification. Junaid’s family also identified him as being present in the coach at the time of incident,” said Mr. Goyal, adding that the police were in touch with some of the people who were in the coach at the time of incident.
‘Accused was drunk’
Ramesh purportedly told the police that he had left home on the evening of June 22 for work and boarded a train to Ballabgarh after having drinks with a friend at Palwal railway station.
He then got down at Ballabgarh, but decided to return home as he was heavily drunk.
Slept at railway station
He got into the same coach in which Junaid and his friends were travelling in and got embroiled in a scuffle. A co-passenger then gave him a knife, with which he allegedly stabbed Junaid multiple times. He then jumped off the train at the Asaoti railway station and boarded another local train to reach Palwal. But he did not go home. He slept at the railway station instead, from where he was arrested.
