Three days after an unidentified man set fire to passengers after pouring petrol on them when the train reached Kerala's Korapuzha bridge near Elathur, a joint team of central intelligence and anti-terrorism officers arrested a suspect on Wednesday.
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 the Elathur railway station, late on Sunday night while nine people suffered burn injuries and are undergoing treatment at various hospitals.
Police believe they fell off the train or attempted to get down after seeing the fire.
The suspect, identified as Shahrukh, was caught in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, about 1,000 kilometres north of Kerala after a sketch of him was circulated by the Kerala police based on a witness's account.
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"A team of Kerala police has also reached Ratnagiri and the accused will be handed over to them soon," said an official of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the UP Police had held him on Monday night for questioning in Bulandshahr based on a tip-off.
Shahrukh's father Yameen claimed his son was at home for the past two months and not gone to Kerala. He works as a carpenter in the district and has studied till class 10th, Yameen added.
He said police had taken Shahrukh from home last night and later he came to know he was released.
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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala Police on Tuesday intensified its probe into an incident of arson aboard an express train in Kozhikode district and was verifying information received about the suspect in the case, police said.
Two days after the incident rocked the state, senior officials of various investigating agencies, including the NIA (National Investigation Agency) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) today inspected the coaches of the Alappuzha-Kannur Express train.
Senior officials of the Kerala police, RPF and others today held a high-level meeting and charted a course of action.
(With PTI Inputs)
