Puri: The Government Railway Police (GRP) Sunday claimed to have solved the mystery behind a fire in Puri-Hatia Tapaswini Express March 22 and arrested a person in this connection.
The accused has been identified as Ashok Kumar Pradhan of Khajuria in Brahmagiri area of the district.
“Pradhan has confessed to the crime. We would take him on remand to elicit more information on the incident. We are trying to ascertain whether anybody else is involved in the crime or not,” GRP in-charge Santosh Kumar Bahinipati.
According to Bahinipati, Pradhan had been booked in several theft and snatching cases at various police stations in the Holy City. “He had been jailed for looting valuables from passengers at Puri railway station. Subsequently, the personnel of GRP and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had prevented him from entering into the station. Pradhan had set ablaze Tapaswini Express to settle the score with security personnel,” Bahinipati said in press conference here.
GRP sources claimed that Pradhan had closely observed the arrival and departure schedules of some trains prior to the March 22 incident. “The accused had entered into the S-4 coach of Tapaswini Express around 12.30 pm March 22 while the train was on platform no. 4 at city railway station. He set afire a seat of the S-4 coach and left the place. Three coaches of the express were gutted in the incident,” Bahinipati claimed.
GRP sources claimed that they came to know about Pradhan’s involvement in the fire incident after examining the CCTV footage collected from the station.
“We had filed a case in this regard and constituted a special team to arrest the accused,” Bahinipati said.
It is learnt that the railway authorities are now conducting a departmental investigation into the incident. “The probe would find out whether there was any negligence on part of the railway and security officials,” said a source.
RPF inspector GK Dash, meanwhile, claimed that they beefed up vigil at the railway station to prevent similar incident in future.
