An alleged serial killer who usually targeted women on trains killed a male tabla player from Howrah apparently because he protested him smoking in the coach, police officers who have spoken to the accused said.

Rahul Karamveer Jat was on the run and had allegedly killed at least three people before he met Bally resident Soumitra Chatterjee.

The police said Jat and Chatterjee were the only passengers in the compartment for the specially-abled that day on the Down Katihar Express when the tabla player objected to the accused smoking a bidi.

“He has confessed to killing Soumitra Chatterjee in a fit of rage because the latter asked him not to smoke on the train,” said an officer involved in the probe.

Chatterjee was attacked with a knife, the police said. He had stab wounds on his chest and neck and his body was kept on the bunk, covered with a blanket. A black bag he was carrying and his phone were missing.

A team of the Bengal railway police interrogated Jat on Thursday. Jat is now in the custody of the Gujarat police.

The police have learned from the family of Chatterjee that he suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had breathing problems if someone smoked near him.

Jat, who was arrested in Vapi by Gujarat police on Sunday, is said to have told the cops that he killed Chatterjee near Malda and then got off the train.

“He said he committed the crime when the train was passing through Malda. After that, he got off and took another train to Howrah,” said an investigator.

The police said they were yet to get any corroborative evidence about this.

“Jat said that from Howrah, he took a train to Kharagpur and then boarded the Ernakulam Express that headed south,” said an officer.

The police said they became certain about the location of the accused on the Ernakulam Express after scanning electronic data from the tower location of Chatterjee’s phone, which Jat had stolen.

“But we are yet to get any corroborative evidence for the duration he had kept the phone off after the murder. It appears the phone was switched off soon after the murder. When it was switched on the next day, its location was traced to Andhra Pradesh. The day after it was in Tamil Nadu. However, we have no records as of now to suggest that Jat had come to Howrah after the murder,” the officer said.

The police said teams were scanning CCTV footage at Howrah and Kharagpur stations to locate Jat during the period.