JOIN USIncidents of fire in train compartments at different railway stations across India has led the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to believe that these are part of a plot to cause a nationwide subversive operation.
The agency could have stumbled upon the plot while questioning a suspect arrested from Puri station in November.
Sources said that the matter came to notice after interrogating Subhas Ramachandran, who was taken into custody for setting fire to five empty compartments of three trains, Nandan Kanan Express, Tirupati Express and Puri-Howrah Express, at Puri station on November 12.
He was arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Railway Police. The case was handed over to the NIA after the Odisha government requested the Home Ministry to get the matter probed.
According to sources, the plan was to be executed some time during the first week of December.
“The agency has come to know that setting fire to empty train compartments was part of the plan. These random incidents were basically trials and practice runs before conducting a major nationwide terror operation, including blasts on trains and at major stations,” a source said.
The agency is believed to have formally taken over the case on Monday. While the agency has set up a team, to be led by an SP rank officer, officials have noted that besides Puri, similar incidents also took place at Haridwar, Gaya and Kharagpur in November.
Preliminary questioning of Ramachandran, a resident of Chennai, revealed an ISI connection, sources said. On November 12, the day Ramachandran set fire to the compartments at Puri, a similar fire was reported from Kharagpur station in West Bengal.
Sources said that Ramachandran admitted to having taken up the assignment for a fat pay packet. Further probe revealed that the plan was to score attacks on major stations like Howrah, Kharagpur and Puri, along with some places of religious interest frequented by pilgrims. Ramachandran is believed to have told his interrogators that the module behind the operation is run by one Akhtar Ali.
The man, most likely an ISI handler, contacted Ramachandran and offered him a substantial sum of money to execute the plan. Ali’s module had reportedly tried similar fires on a suburban train in Mumbai in August and on a local train in Chennai last year.