The Kochi unit of National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into Kerala train fire on Tuesday. The NIA also registered an FIR after the Union Home Ministry issued a notification earlier in the day.
According to IANS, Shahrukh Saifi, a 27-year-old Delhi resident, accused in the case was produced before a Kozhikode court. Saifi was sent to judicial custody on Tuesday since Special Investigation Team of Kerala Police did not seek extended custody of the accused.
Only in the coming days, Kochi unit is expected to seek Saifi's custody to investigate the motive behind Saifi doing the crime.
Earlier, Kerala SIT failed to establish the motive even after having him in custody for 11 days.
On April 2, Saifi poured petrol and set a few passengers on fire on a movie train from Kozhikode. Three passengers, who were witnesses to the incident jumped out of the moving train out of fear and died in the impact. Nine others suffered burn injuries.
Later, Saifi travelled on the same train to Kannur and after a few hours, he boarded another train and got down at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. It was only with the intervention of central agencies that alerted the ATS division of Maharashtra Police that Saifi was located at Ratnagiri and arrested.
Saifi was handed over to the Kerala Police, and was soon taken to Kozhikode and until Tuesday he was under the custody of the Kerala SIT.
On Monday, it became clear that the NIA will be taking over the case when the SIT head ADGP M.R. Ajithkumar told the media that Saifi was a highly radicalised person and the probe team has been able to find out all that he did right from the time he boarded the train till his arrest at Ratnagiri.
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(With IANS inputs)