Polygraph test to be conducted on Odisha train fire accused

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Puri, Nov 21:

The Puri SDJM (Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate) court today allowed the GRP (Government Railway Police) to conduct a polygraph test of Subas Ramchandran, the main accused in Puri fire incident.

“The accused changes his statement even now and then. At times he claims to be part of a group and at others he claims to be alone. This necessitates a polygraph test for further investigation. The SDJM court today gave the go ahead to conduct the test as per existing guidelines,” said public prosecutor Satyajit Sarangi speaking to reporters today.

What makes the investigation more complex for the agencies are a series of train fire incidents in the country at places including Haridwar, Gaya, Kharagpur and Bhubaneswar before the incident at Puri.

The RPF (Railway Protection Force) cops, including the teams from Mughalsarai, Gaya and West Bengal that have arrived here to investigate train fire incidents at their respective places, grilled him all through the day today to find out more information and to see if he has any links to the train fire incidents elsewhere in the country.

Besides, the agencies are not ruling out possible connections with LTTE extremism. Interrogating cops are taking help of three interpreters as the 27 year old Subas speaks only Tamil. However, as per reports he is not cooperating with the agencies and prefers to answer in ‘yes’ or ‘no’ apart from changing his statement every now and then.

As per reliable sources, the accused has confessed to the crime. Besides, he has confessed to be part of a group that spoke Hindi and Bengali. The motive of the crime, however, is yet to be established. The claims made by our source could not be independently substantiated.

Notably, a major fire broke out at Puri Station on November 12, in which two coaches – each of Nandankanan Express, Tirupati Express and one coach of Puri-Howrah Express – were reduced to ashes even though there were no casualties. A high-level probe was ordered following the incident and four suspects had been detained for further interrogation. Subas was arrested from the spot on November 12.