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Bhubaneswar: The home ministry Thursday handed over the Puri station arson case to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) a week after Orissa government urged the Centre to initiate a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the fire case.
The CID aims to grill Ramachandran Subhash, the prime accused in case, to probe links to the Kharagpur train arson case, according to N Bhatacharya, a CID official. Subhash was brought to Bhubaneswar for a joint investigation by Bhubaneswar Government Railway Police (GRP), Uttarakhand GRP, NIA and CID to probe links with similar incidents reported in other parts of the country.
The SDJM court in Puri granted GRP six-day remand of Subhash, which will begin on Thursday.
A low-intensity explosion at Puri railway station had led to three trains catching fire and at least five bogies being damaged November 12.
Central government agencies had a few days ago received information that a terrorist module was planning attacks in different parts of India. The module was also said to have visited various places across the country to identify possible targets for the attacks.
“There is further reliable information that the module carried out low intensity combustible blasts in railway coaches in Orissa and other places, which resulted in fire in some coaches,” said a notification by the Union home ministry.
Earlier, NIA superintendent of police (SP) Prashant Kumar had visited Puri and reportedly interrogated Subhash while he was in police custody.
Investigating officials said on condition of anonymity that Kumar had grilled Subhash to elicit information about the latter’s suspected involvement in similar incidents in other parts of the country.
Subhash has been changing his statement but a huge amount has been transferred to his account from Kashmir, Kumar had said, adding that this points to his being a member of a terrorist group.
