The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet in a special NIA court in Kochi on Saturday against the sole accused, Shahrukh Saifi (30), a native of New Delhi, in the Kozhikode train arson case.
The accused has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Railways Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.
The chargesheet states that Shahrukh Saifi, who was attracted to Jihadism through social media, plotted the crime as a Jihadist act. He was self-radicalized through various online propaganda materials available on social media in favour of violent extremism and jihad as propagated by radical Islamic preachers of Indian and foreign nationalities. He followed radical and hard-line Islamic preachers, including those based in Pakistan, on social media platforms.
The investigation revealed that Saifi had chosen Kerala for the act involving terror and arson as he wanted to commit his jihadi act in a location where he would not be recognised. He planned to go back and continue his normal life, after the commission of the act, aimed at creating terror in the minds of the general public. He thought that he would not be caught because he had just come to Kerala and no one would recognise him.
Three passengers, including a child, were killed and nine others were injured after the accused allegedly poured some inflammable liquid on passengers on the D1 coach of the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express when the train crossed the Elathur station near Kozhikode and set the train on fire on the night of April 2, 2023.
The case was initially registered at the Kozhikode Railway police station and later investigated by a special investigation team of the Kerala Police. The NIA took over the probe into the case on April 18 to investigate the alleged terrorist link in the case
A resident of Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, Saifi had boarded the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express, and committed the terror act when the train crossed the Elathur station, near Kozhikode.
He continued to travel in the same train till Kannur He then escaped to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, from where he was eventually arrested. The accused had purchased petrol from a fuel outlet at Shoranur and a lighter from a store near the Shoranur railway station.