He was brought to Kerala from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra early on Thursday, 6 April, a day after his arrest.
Published Apr 06, 2023 | 4:28 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 06, 2023 | 5:50 PM
Saifi in Maharashtra ATS custody and (left) a sketch of the suspected released by the Kerala Police. (Supplied)
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2 April arson onboard the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express brought the suspect, Sharukh Saifi (24), to Kozhikode in Kerala on Thursday, 6 April.
Three people were killed after Saifi reportedly sprinkled an inflammable liquid, suspected to be petrol, on passengers travelling the D-1 coach of the daily train at 9.27 pm on Sunday.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Maharashtra Police arrested Saifi from Ratnagiri Railway Station and handed him over to the Kerala Police on Wednesday, 5 April.
The Maharashtra ATS reportedly said that Saifi had confessed to the crime but refused to reveal the motive, He was also frequently changing his statements.
Saifi underwent a medical test before the police took him to Kerala by road on a transit warrant.
The vehicle ferrying Saifi from Ratnagiri suffered a tyre burst while passing through Kannur early on Thursday,
Another vehicle that the Elathur Police arranged did not start due to an engine failure, and the team bringing the accused spent more than an hour before an Special Investigation Team (SIT) vehicle picked them up.
The breaking down of the vehicle bringing the suspect sparked much criticism along with how he had given the police the slip early on Monday, 3 April.
Saifi was taken to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where a team of doctors from various disciplines examined him.
A four-vehicle convoy, including commandos on a bus, took him to the hospital. At the hospital, too, tight security arrangements were made.
Besides burns, he had also suffered injuries on his face and legs while jumping off a moving Ernakulam-Ajmer Maru Sagar Express at Kalambani near Ratnagiri.
Villagers took him to the civil hospital, from where he escaped and reached the railway station and landed in the police net.
Several agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, were involved in finding Saifi. It has been learnt that he switched on one of his SIM cards, helping the police to track him down.
The Kerala police on Wednesday questioned Saifi’s father Fakruddin, younger brothers Farooq and Adish and three others at their Shaheen Bagh residence in South Delhi, reports said.
The “hue and cry” notice issued by the Shaheen Bagh police. (Supplied)
Saifi pursued a course in pharmacy after completing his plus-two but discontinued it. He was helping his father in carpentry when he went missing on 31 March.
The family lodged a person-missing complaint with the Shaheen Bagh Police and a “hue and cry” notice was issued.
His father had earlier identified Saifi’s bag which was found near the railway tracks at Elanthur in Kozhikode. The family reportedly told investigators that he had never travelled outside Delhi — except for Noida — before.
Fakruddin and his family had shifted to Shaheen Bagh from Noida around 20 years ago.
Kerala Police Chief DGP Anil Kant said investigators would question Saifi after the medical check-up.
Kant also said which provisions of law, including UAPA, should be invoked against Saifi would be decided after he was questioned. The police would also probe if others were also involved in the fire incident,
“We are happy that we were able to trace him well in time. It was due to a combined effort by the SIT, central intelligence agencies and Maharashtra police,” he said.
Regarding the persons injured in the arson attack on April 2 night, the State Police Chief said that one of them had 35-40 percent burns while the rest were stable.
Three others, Rahmath Monikoth (45), her two-year-old niece Sahara Bathul, and a man, Naufeeq KP (40), were killed in the incident. Their bodies were found by the railway tracks early on Monday.
The deceased might have fallen off, or alighted from the moving train to escape the fire.
On the night of 2 April, an unidentified man had set fire to passengers after pouring petrol on them when the train reached Korapuzha bridge near Elathur.
The bodies of a woman, an infant, and a man, who went missing from the train after the fire, were recovered from the tracks near Elathur railway station.
According to the police, the incident was probably pre-planned as he was carrying petrol in a bottle in his bag.
After the tragic incident on 2 April, the Kerala Police constituted an SIT to identify and apprehend the assailant.
After a sketch of the assailant was released by Kerala Police based on the statements of passengers who witnessed the incident, the suspect was caught from Ratnagiri by Maharashtra ATS.
Reports said after setting passengers on fire Saifi travelled on the same train to Kannur, from where he took the Maru Sagar Express to Ajmer. His destination was Ajmer when he was captured in Ratnagiri.
The police expressed suspicion that Saifi might have travelled to other places in Kerala, including the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress on Thursday termed laughable Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s claim that the nabbing of the suspect in the train fire case indicated excellence of the state police.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly VD Satheesan alleged that instead of excellence in investigation, the police’s actions in the case till now only indicated its “failure” and “lack of vigilance”, which was “unpardonable”.
He said that the chief minister’s claim of police excellence in the case was a “hollow” statement, which would make the public laugh.
Satheesan claimed that the suspect, Saifi, had travelled till Kannur (more than an hour’s distance from Kozhikode where the incident took place) on the same train in which he set fire to passengers on April 2, and on the next day he boarded the Ernakulam-Ajmer Maru Sagar Express from there.
The Congress leader contended it was surprising that the police conducted no checks on the train or at Kannur Railway Station, and despite the tragic loss of lives that shocked the state, not even an alert had been issued by the force.
“If a thorough search had been conducted at railway stations and other public places, the accused could have been taken into custody on the same day,” he said, and added, “Kerala police behaved extremely pathetically”.
The police’s actions amounted to providing an opportunity to the suspect to escape and cross the Kerala border, he said.
“It is an unpardonable mistake that the police failed to grasp the gravity of the incident. There was a big failure and lack of vigilance on the part of Kerala police,” Satheesan said.
He said that all that Kerala Police did was to reach Ratnagiri in Maharashtra to take custody of the suspect and bring him back to Kozhikode, which too was not carried out smoothly as the SUV bringing Saifi by road got a flat tyre and was on the roadside for over an hour waiting for a replacement vehicle.
“The lackadaisical manner in which the police handled the matter needs no further proof,” the Congress leader said.
Vijayan, on Wednesday, 5 April, ad said that the apprehension of the assailant within three days of the incident indicated the investigative excellence of the Kerala Police and the cooperation received from various central and state agencies.
He had also congratulated all the police officers, who took part in the probe, and also the agencies, including Maharashtra ATS, central intelligence and the Railways, that cooperated in the investigation.
(With PTI inputs)
