The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case under the Unlawful Arms Prevention Act (UAPA) and other sections of IPC on Friday to probe the recent incidents of arson in empty train-coaches in different cities.
This comes after a man was arrested for setting empty trains on fire in Puri, Odisha in the second week of November.
Subash Ramachandran, a 35-year-old man from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu was arrested on November 12 at the Puri railway station by the Government Railway Police for setting on fire five train coaches.
Later on November 26, Odisha government asked the Centre for a probe by National Investigating Agency (NIA) as according to DGP KB Singh, the Puri incident was merely a continuation of what had earlier happened in Gaya, Kharagpur and Hyderbad.
The NIA has reportedly rushed teams to Puri, Hyderabad, Haridwar, Bhubaneswar, Kharagpur and Gaya from where these incidents of arson were reported in early November.
The Times of India reported that based on Ramachandran’s interrogation, NIA suspects that these fires were mere practice sessions for something bigger planned by his group.
"It seems the terror outfit was testing some kind of explosive material by burning trains and Ramchandran was hired by them for Rs 3-5 lakhs," said a senior official.
After watching the CCTV footage, NIA has confirmed that Subhash was sent to conduct a recce of the Tirupati temple.
NIA now awaits the FSL report for confirmation of the chemical used to cause these fires.