18-member SIT constituted to track train arsonist

An 18-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising five Assistant Commissioners of Police and eight Circle Inspectors has been formed to track the man who set on fire the D1 coach of the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express on Sunday night.

An 18-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising five Assistant Commissioners of Police and eight Circle Inspectors has been formed to track the man who set on fire the D1 coach of the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express on Sunday night. Based on inputs from a few passengers, the police have released a sketch of the arsonist, suspected to be a native of Uttar Pradesh. Eyewitnesses said he had poured an inflammable type of liquid on the floor and set it on fire.

The National Investigation Agency and Kerala’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) have stepped in to collect details from the local police. Senior police officers said the movement of the arsonist appeared premeditated. However, the trigger of the attack, which took place at 9.30 p.m., injuring nine passengers, continues to be obscure.

The police recovered the bodies of three passengers, including a child, from the railway track near Elathur. The deceased passengers, Rahmath, Soufeeq, and Sahara, hailing from Mattannur, had reportedly jumped off the moving train to escape the fire. A few fellow passengers had noticed that the trio was missing when the train reached Kannur station by 10.30 p.m. The bodies were handed over to relatives after post-mortem examination at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital on Monday.

The SIT and forensic experts have recovered a few articles allegedly abandoned by the suspect along the railway track. A bottle of petrol, a mobile phone, some clothes, and a few papers with scribbles in English and Hindi were inside a bag found abandoned near the crime spot on Monday. Police sources said they were examining it scientifically so as to avoid attempts to mislead the investigators. The Railway authorities said the man entered the coach without a reserved ticket.

The police gathered surveillance visuals from multiple locations near the crime spot, but they failed to yield any effective leads. One of the initial suspects was later found to be a student from Kappad. There were initially rumours that the attacker had fled from the spot with the help of another person on a motorbike.

V. Abdurahman, State Minister in charge of Railways, visited the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode to meet passengers who sustained burns in the incident.