# Mumbai police use sign language expert to question train murder witness 2026-08-23T03:19:06+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Mumbai's Government Railway Police have found a deaf-and-mute eyewitness to the murder of Cajetan Pires, a 63-year-old amputee pushed from a moving local train on Thursday. An expert sign-language interpreter helped record the witness's account on Friday. The witness told police that Pires boarded at Mahim station and asked co-passenger Amjad Shaikh, who was occupying a seat in the Divyangjan coach meant for persons with disabilities, to vacate it. Shaikh refused, argued, then grabbed Pires by the shirt collar and pushed him, causing Pires to fall out of the moving train. Police said Shaikh was travelling without a ticket. The compartment had no surveillance cameras. Shaikh faces murder charges, and a senior officer said the police are building a strong case. Pires's funeral was held at Santacruz on Saturday, his family has demanded the harshest punishment. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The GRP's use of a sign-language expert to record the witness statement shows how crimes on Mumbai's suburban network, which carries over seven million passengers daily, often lack CCTV coverage, only a fraction of the 2,500 rakes have cameras. The Divyangjan coach was mandated by the Railways Act to reserve space for persons with disabilities, but enforcement of seat priority is left to passengers, not railway staff. This case will test whether the absence of a ticket compounds culpability under the Indian Penal Code or remains a separate Railway Act violation. The family's call for the 'strongest possible punishment' aligns with Section 302 (murder) charges, though courts often downgrade such platform-push cases to culpable homicide. The key signal to watch is whether the magistrate's court remands Shaikh to police custody on Monday, indicating a homicide probe. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Leads with police action on witness, omits any systemic criticism of lack of CCTV or enforcement, neutral-report framing This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Cajetan Pires, Divyangjan coach, Government Railway Police, Mumbai Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/mumbai-police-use-sign-language-expert-to-question-train-murder-witness/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/mumbai-police-use-sign-language-expert-to-question-train-murder-witness/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/