According to reports, Assistant Superintendent of Police Subhash submitted the FIR pertaining to the case to an NIA court in Kochi.
Shahrukh Saifi, police at the site of the train arson. (Twitter)
Two days after the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was imposed on the accused Shahrukh Saifi by the Kerala police, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday, 18 April, took over the arson in the Kerala train case.
The Kochi unit of the NIA will probe the case based on a special order by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
According to reports, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Subhash submitted the FIR pertaining to the case to an NIA court in Kochi.
Earlier, an NIA team had visited the site and submitted a preliminary report. According to the NIA, the terrorism angle in the case cannot be neglected.
The central probe agency also pointed out the need of a broader investigation in four states, including Maharashtra and Delhi.
Shahrukh Saifi, whose police custody ended on Tuesday, has been shifted to the Viyyur jail in Thiruvananthapuram.
The accused had allegedly set a compartment of a moving express train on fire and fled in Kerala’s Kozhikode district late on 2 April.
Three people, including a year-old child and a woman, were later found beside the railway tracks near the Elathur railway station.
Nine other passengers sustained injuries in the incident. The deceased trio were also travelling on the same train.
The three were missing from the train after the fire incident, news agencies quoted a senior police officer as saying.
The 16307 Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train was nearing the bridge on Korappuzha after Kozhikode when the incident occurred.
The unidentified man in a red shirt doused a passenger with an inflammable liquid and set him on fire, police said. The suspect escaped soon after the incident when passengers pulled the emergency chain to stop the train.
The police said the nine people, who suffered burns, were shifted to various hospitals, including the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.
The Kerala police had, soon after the incident, formed an 18-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe it and sought the help from various state agencies.
Saifi was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police from the Ratnagiri Railway Station.
A Kozhikode First Class Judicial Magistrate had granted 11-day custody of Saifi to police after he was discharged from the hospital upon undergoing treatment for the injuries he suffered during an attempt to escape from the moving train.
Saifi has also confessed to the crime committed by him, according to the police.
The investigating team had on 12 April taken him to Kannur for collecting evidence from the two train coaches of the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train in which he had set fire to some passengers leading to the death of three persons, including a two-year-old child.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visited the bereaved families of the three victims and handed over compensation of ₹5 lakh each.
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