A 37-year-old man has been arrested for planting a live snake inside the toilet of a coach of a Mumbai-Solapur train on December 27, 2025. The man has confessed to the crime and said he had done it to create a nuisance. Central Railway’s RPF team, nearly seven weeks later, apprehended the man on Thursday.

The 2.5-foot-long Indian rat snake had created panic among commuters on the Solapur Vande Bharat Express. After it was spotted, officials aboard the train immediately alerted the Control Room. Officials tried to locate the snake at Karjat station but couldn’t. Another search was carried out when the train reached Pune, but the snake remained elusive. Subsequently, the toilet was locked, and a thorough search was conducted after the train reached Solapur, where the snake was found.