The Kerala Police is learnt to have identified the man who poured inflammable oil on co-passengers before setting them afire inside the D-1 coach of the Alapuzha-Kannur Express on Sunday night after the train left Kozhikode railway station.

It is reported that Mohammad Shahrukh Saifi, a native of Noida, who is engaged in construction work in Kozhikode, committed the crime. Saifi jumped off the train after committing the crime when it slowed down at Elathur and fled.

Advertisement

Earlier, the police had released a sketch of the man suspected to have set his co-passengers on fire aboard in the Alapuzha-Kannur Express train. The drawing was prepared at the Elathoor police station with the help of Razik, a passenger who boarded the train from Feroke railway station. Rashik had informed police that he was sitting opposite the suspect in the train before the incident happened.

The police had also received crucial information that he had sought treatment at the Kannur district hospital.

The railway police conducted an investigation following the suspicion that a person who resembled the sketch of the accused in the case had sought treatment at the Kannur district hospital. The police received information that the person who suffered burns on his leg sought treatment at the hospital under suspicious circumstances on Monday morning. He gave the name and address of a person in Kannur city. But the police found it to be fake. The doctor who was in casualty advised to admit him to the hospital, but he didn’t get admitted to the hospital.

The police got critical  information  regarding the accused from a mobile phone found on the railway  track. Although the mobile phone did not have a SIM card, the cyber cell was able to recover the SIM cards used in the phone earlier.

Meanwhile, Kerala police chief Anil Kant has assigned a Special Investigation Team to probe the fire on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train. ADGP MR Ajith Kumar, who is in charge of law and order, will lead the investigation team.

The team  will include Malappuram Crime Branch SP P Vikraman, Anti-Terrorism Squad DYSP Baiju Paulus, Kozhikode Town Assistant Commissioner P Bijuraj, Tanur DYSP VV Benny and  others

Three people killed and nine passengers suffered burn injuries after an unidentified person poured inflammable oil on co-passengers and set them afire inside the D-1 coach of the Alapuzha-Kannur Express around 9  pm on Sunday after the train left Kozhikode railway station in Kerala

The deceased has been identified as Rahmath of Mattanur, her sister’s  two-year old daughter Saharan and Thaufik of Mattanur.

According to the Elathur police, after the train reached Kannur some passengers complained about the missing of a woman and a child. Later, their bodies were found on the tracks between Elathur railway station and Korapuzha bridge near Kozhikode at 1 am on Monday.Police suspect that they might have jumped out of the moving train in panic when  the fire had broken out

Nine passengers, including three women, sustained burns. Of them, five persons were admitted to the Kozhikode medical college hospital and four were admitted to other hospitals. The condition of Ruby, Anil Kumar, Adwaith, Sajisha and Aswathi, who were admitted to the  Kozhikode medical college hospital is stated to be serious.