Maharashtra: One of the prime accused in the sensational lynching of 16-year-old Junaid Khan in a train last month has been arrested in Dhule, northern Maharashtra, in India Government Railway Police said on Saturday.

The fugitive was hiding in Dhule since the incident, which triggered nationwide outrage. On police interrogation, the accused confessed to stabbing Junaid and his brothers, an official of GRP said.

The accused, whose name the GRP police declined to reveal, hails from Palwal district of Haryana, close to Ballabgarh, the village of the victims.

The accused is likely to be produced before a Dhule magistrate for a transit remand on Sunday and later handed over to the police in Delhi.

Junaid and cousin brothers Hasim Moin and Shakir Moin had boarded the EMU train going from Ghaziabad to Mathura after Eid shopping on 22 June.

The accused, along with around a dozen other persons, boarded the train at Okhla and ordered Junaid and his brothers to give them their seats.

When they refused, they brutally beat the three and also stabbed them and dumped them at Asaoti railway station in Palwal district.

The Haryana Police had announced a Rs 50,000 reward for information on the prime accused who went missing after the incident.

On 4 July, the GRP had announced Rs 2 lakh reward to anyone providing information about the identity of the accused.