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Puri: An eleven member team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL) on Saturday inspected all five bogies which were set afire by train arson main accused Ramchandran Subhas on November 12 here.
The team, involving six NIA members and led by NIA SP Prashant Kumar examined the bogies of three trains to know the circumstances leading to the mysterious fire.
During inspection the investigating agency members also collected some burnt metal samples from the train to gather information about the substances used to ignite fire which spread in no time to other bogies causing extensive damage.
Though Subhas, a resident of Tamil Nadu has ‘admitted’ to have committed the crime using some ‘inflammable’ materials and ‘chemicals’ used in the manufacture of crackers, supplied by two youths in Mumbai, experts believe the samples will help the investigating team to crack the case.
Since a similar train arson incident in July 2012 had claimed 32 lives in Hyderabad and traces of burnt chemicals like potassium chloride and magnesium used in fire crackers were found from the fire site, the investigating team is looking for such traces here to measure the magnitude of the incident.
Sources said, the central team also visited the spot from where Subhas was nabbed by the Government Railway Police (GRP) after the fire was reported from Nandankanan Express first. Sources added, the team wished to scan the CCTV footage of the spot to know about the aides of Subhas, if any.
Despite Subhas ‘admitted’ that he alone carried out the fire episode in three Express trains in the holy city, the central team does not want to take a chance by believing his statement.
Officials on condition of anonymity said, it is still not clear whether Subhas alone had come to Puri or with some associates. Besides, it will again be a challenging task for the team to know whether he had visited the Puri temple to execute any modus operandi before committing the crime.
