Kerala train fire case: According to the Kerala Police, the prime suspect in the train fire incident confessed to his crime on Friday. ADGP (Law and Order) MR Ajit Kumar told reporters that the accused has confessed to having committed the crime and the police is interrogating the accused.
Kumar said an accused involved in such cases cannot reveal his motive and interrogation is a long process. He said the accused is being interrogated and more details cannot be disclosed at this point.
Hours after the accused was taken into custody by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the senior officer said the team was probing from all angles.
“We will take him to collect evidence as the inquiry progresses,” he said. The custody of the accused was taken after he was declared physically fit by a medical board here.
The police officer also said that the bag, which was found along with a book and a petrol bottle by the side of the track, belonged to the accused.
Earlier, a court here granted 11-day custody to Shahrukh Saifi, who is accused of setting ablaze his co-passengers on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train when it reached the Korapuzha bridge in Kozhikode.
Nine people got scorched in the accident while three including a child died on the track. Police suspect that they might have fallen while trying to escape from the fire.
What was the incident?
On 3 April, at least three people died and several others were injured after an unidentified person sprinkled an inflammable substance inside a moving train compartment and set it on fire.
According to reports, the suspect doused a passenger with petrol and set it on fire inside the D1 compartment of the Alappuzha-Kannur Main Executive Express train near Elathur in Kozhikode district. One of the injured persons reported that an unidentified assailant threw an inflammable substance, apparently petrol or kerosene, and set the train on fire.
Bodies of a woman, an infant and a man, who went missing from the train after it caught fire, were recovered from the tracks near Elathur railway station late on Sunday night. Police believe they may have fallen from the train or attempted to get down after seeing the fire.
(with PTI inputs)