NIA official takes stock of Puri train fire

BHUBANESWAR: A senior officer of National Investigation Agency ( NIA) today reached here to take stock of the train fire incident at Puri and take a call on whether the agency will take up investigation into it.

A Superintendent of Police (SP)-rank officer, Prasant Kumar met senior officials of intelligence wing, Odisha Police, and GRP, who had interrogated Ramachandran Subas, the lone accused arrested in connection with the train fire incident.

Kumar, a state police official said, was sent to Bhubaneswar after the Odisha Police sought NIA's assistance for investigation into the serial train fire incidents in the state.

The NIA officer was likely to interrogate Ramachandran as well, the official said.

Ramachandran, a native of Tamil Nadu, was arrested on November 12 immediately after a fire broke out at Puri railway station.

Officials, probing the matter, suspected that the accused might have been employed by some terror groups trying to create disturbance in religious places.

The Puri train fire incident succeeded similar incidents at Gaya, Kharagpur and Hyderabad.

Earlier on Friday, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate ( SDJM) court of Puri had allowed the Government Railway Police to take Ramachandran in three-day remand.

A major fire had broke out at Puri Station on November 12, gutting two coaches each of Nandankanan Express and Tirupati Express and one coach of Puri-Howrah Express, even though there was no casualty.

Ramachandran was arrested from the spot on November 12, and a knife, a blade and a match box were seized from him.