Telling factor in arrests

TT, Chandigarh, June 28: A middle-aged government employee and three youngsters were arrested today for the murder of Junaid Khan, throwing up an unsettling element.

The employee and the youths had boarded the trains from different places, suggesting that the atmosphere in parts of the country is such that strangers can come together on a common platform of sectarian hate and collude to commit murder.

The 50-year-old, who police said was an employee of the Delhi government, got on the Delhi-Mathura Passenger at Okhla, on Delhi's southern fringes. The others, all in their twenties, had boarded the train at Faridabad New Town station, several stations after Okhla.

Police sources said all four are from Hodal near Palwal, Haryana, but the three youths who boarded the train in Faridabad did not appear to have been acquainted with the older man.

"An argument started over sharing seats, during which he passed some remarks that hurt the religious sentiments of the boys. The man found support after another group of youths boarded the train from Faridabad New Town railway station," said a police officer.

The person who stabbed Junaid is still at large, the officer said.