Police yet to make headway in Kerala train fire case

Thiruvananthapuram, April 12

Eleven days after a Delhi youth set ablaze passengers on a train bound to Kannur, who has been arrested, not much headway has been made in the case.

Even though the questioning is progressing, it appears that the probe team has not been able to extract much information from the accused, Shahrukh Saifi.

Though the probe team is tight-lipped, sources said that Saifi was travelling alone from Delhi. He took a ticket to Kozhikode in Kerala, but got down at Shornur on April 2 morning.

Then till he boarded the train to Kannur on Sunday late evening. He spent time at Shornur from where he purchased petrol from a fuel filling station, which has also been identified. The auto driver, who took Saifi there, confirmed this with the probe team.

After the train that he boarded from Shornur left Kozhikode, Saifi arrived at the D 1 compartment and doused passengers with petrol and set them on fire.

While three passengers in fright jumped out of the moving train, who were later reported dead on the impact of the fall, nine others also suffered burn injuries.

Saifi then reached Kannur on the same train and after a few hours boarded another train and reached Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

He was arrested in Ratnagiri by a team of the Anti-Terror Squad of Maharashtra Police based on a tip-off from Central agencies on April 5.

The next day he was brought to Kozhikode and after a day in the hospital, he has been in the custody of the Kerala Police probe team.

In the remand report, the police have held Saifi responsible for the death of the three including a young girl, though he has said he was not responsible for it.

Meanwhile, the NIA, according to sources, is also closely monitoring the ongoing probe and in all likelihood to take over the probe.