The main suspect in the Kozhikode railway arson case, Shahrook Saifi, was detained in Maharashtra. The 30-year-old was detained from Ratnagiri by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) on Wednesday based on a sketch and other identifiable information provided by the Kerala police, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the case.
As of Sunday night, the alleged arsonist was still at large after burning Coach D1 of the Alappuzha Kannur Executive Express on fire at 9.30 p.m. and escaping the scene. According to sources, the man was detained by the Maharashtra ATS while he was on a local train. The man was identified based on the accounts of the bystanders. They stated that the Kerala Special Investigation team would arrive shortly to take possession of him and conduct more investigations.
The suspect, who was carrying two bottles, doused his fellow commuters in the D-1 coach of the train in a flammable liquid—possibly petrol—and ignited it. Nine more people received burns, and three people died as they jumped off the moving train to escape the fire.
In light of early investigation reports that it was a premeditated attack and there were attempts to confuse the police with a set of abandoned items, sources said the suspect would be questioned by the National Investigation Agency and the State’s Anti-Terror Squad. Soon after verifying his custody, the Government Railway Police and the SIT set out to gather CCTV footage from various train stations and other potential boarding locations in an effort to piece together more information about his journey.
The SIT tracked a few of the phone numbers and social media accounts that the suspected man had previously used in an attempt to find him as soon as possible.
The credibility of the information that was accessed was also unclear due to possible efforts to create false evidence. After noticing this, a squad of officers travelled to Madhya Pradesh to confirm the man’s whereabouts. The detained man would be brought to Kozhikode by Wednesday night, according to SIT sources, so that more proof could be gathered for the case.
