One arrested, three detained in train fire incident at Odisha’ Puri

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Puri, Nov 13:

A day after five coaches of three different trains were allegedly set on fire in Odisha’s Puri; one person has been arrested and three others have been detained by the cops.

The arrested man has been identified as Ramachandran Subas. He is a resident of Tamil Nadu. He had been detained yesterday by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) after being seen near the burning coach of Neelachal Express immediately after the fire. A knife, a blade and a match box were seized from him. The cops today forwarded him to court.

Besides, three others have been detained by GRP (Government Railway Police) and are being questioned for their possible complicity in the fire. As per sources, the detainees have been identified as Pankaj Singh Hazaria (25), Ram Kumar (35) and Rabi (45). Their addresses, however, are yet to be verified.

“As of now we don’t have any specific clue and we are not ruling out anything. The investigation is in its preliminary stage,” said ADG of GRP M Nageswar Rao who was on the spot today leading a team of forensic experts.

Notably, four different teams have been formed to investigate the matter at various levels. GRP, Forensic team and RPF have lodged suo motu cases and are investigating the matter. Besides, a five member team of railway are also investigating the issue.

It may be noted that three express trains – Neelachal Express, Howrah-Puri and Tirupati-Puri express caught fire last evening while standing at different platforms in Puri station. Even though no casualties were reported as the trains were empty, five bogies were completely damaged due to the incident.

The fire started with Neelachal Express, which was standing at platform no. 4 and two bogies S-12 and S-11 sleeper coach of the train got completely charred. Soon after the fire brigade personnel got control over the fire, another train Tirupati Express, which was standing at platform no 2 caught fire. In the incident, two bogies including no 3 and 4 sleeper coaches of the train were damaged.

Police arrested Pankaj from the coach number five of the train.

In the third incident, Howrah Express which was standing at the platform number six of the station caught fire. A general coach of the train was partially damaged during the incident.