Two days after Kerala police used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against Shahrukh Saifi, a 27-year-old Delhi resident, the NIA has taken over the case.
Thiruvananthapuram: According to a release from the Union Home Ministry, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took control of the investigation into the Kerala train accident that killed three people earlier this month, according to a senior official familiar with the case.
According to the official, the organization’s Kochi unit will investigate the case and take over the files of the Kerala Police Special Investigation Team (SIT). The NIA’s action came two days after Shahrukh Saifi, a 27-year-old Delhi resident, was charged by the Kerala Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
As reported by SIT, Shahrukh Saifi, who was employed as a carpenter by his father in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, was highly radicalized, and his phone contained conversations with controversial preacher Zakir Naik and others. However, the team admitted that it was unclear what Shahrukh’s motivations or connections to other suspects were.
On April 2, after the Alappuzha-Kannur Inter-City Express left Kozhikode station at around 9:30 p.m., suspect Shahrukh Saifi allegedly sprayed gasoline and set fire to fellow passengers in a train compartment. Three people, including a child, died when they jumped off the moving train during the fracas. Saifi was among nine people who also suffered burns.
Following tips from Kerala police and the Central Intelligence Bureau, Saifi was arrested April 5 in the Ratnagiri region of Maharashtra by the state’s counterterrorism unit and then brought to Kerala. After his police custody expires, he will be taken to the central jail in Thrissur on Wednesday, the police said. The Kozhikode District Court is expected to hear his bail application on April 20.