Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Nov 28: A team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials who reached here Saturday to investigate the recent serial train blaze incident at Puri railway station interrogated the main accused, Ramachandran Subhash.
The interrogation was led by NIA SP Prashant Kumar, who heads the NIA team entrusted with the case. Subhash, a resident of Tamil Nadu, was interrogated at the Special Investigation Wing (SIW) office here. Special director and additional DG of Orissa Police (Intelligence), Arun Kumar Sarangi, was also part of the team that grilled Subhash.
Sources said NIA officials might take Ramachandran to Puri railway station Sunday to ascertain how he executed the plan of setting afire seven empty coaches of three trains and might conduct a polygraph test on him soon.
The Central agency stepped in after the state government November 26 recommended the Centre to hand over the investigation into the incidents to the NIA.
Earlier, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) court of Puri November 27 had allowed the Government Railway Police (GRP) to take Ramachandran on a three-day remand.
The GRP November 23 had requested the court to extend the remand of Ramachandran by 10 days.
Sources said the investigators will try to elicit more information on Ramchandran’s possible link with a Mumbai module and a gang based in Kolkata.
“Ramachandran might have been employed by such a group which is carrying out ‘dry runs’ across places of religious significance. He has admitted that in the past too he was involved in similar incidents like the one in Rishikesh-Delhi train at Haridwar and Gaya railway stations,” the sources added.
RPF officials who had earlier questioned Ramachandran, told the newspaper that he had admitted that he was part of a Metiabruz-based gang in Kolkata and that the gang had asked him to set afire five empty train coaches to test his capabilities.
Ramachandran, who had earlier told the media that a few terrorists had directed him to burn some empty train coaches in Puri, reportedly told the cops that he planted two bombs in each of the four train coaches in Puri and burnt another coach using a different tactic.
“Ramachandran has said that the gang that directed him to set ablaze the empty coaches in Puri was testing his capabilities. If found successful, he would be used by the gang for bigger operations in future,” a senior official familiar with the investigations said.
According to the sources, Ramachandran was guided by five people from the gang who were also present at Puri railway station when he set afire of the train coaches. The five people, suspected to be the handlers of Ramachandran, managed to flee, said the sources.
On the possibility of Ramachandran being associated with any terror outfit, Bhubaneswar GRP inspector-in-charge Saubhagya Kumar Swain said, “It is very difficult to say anything at this point of time.”
Police have so far maintained that Subhash is mentally unstable and that whatever he has been saying lacks coherence. These claims were also echoed by Ramachandran’s family based in Tamil Nadu.
