89 questions, still clueless  

Puri train arson accused was conducted polygraph test over ‘terror link.’

BHUBANESWAR: Ramachandran Subhash, accused in Puri train arson, on Monday was conducted polygraph test in a bid to blow the lid off the alleged ‘terror link’ behind the train fire incident at Puri station in Odisha last month.

The investigators quizzed him for about seven hours on Monday, and he was asked 89 questions during the interrogation at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) in the Odisha capital here.

Ramachandran was taken to the centre for lie detection test at around 10.30 am.

Though the statements recorded during the test are not admissible in the court of law, the investigators are subjecting him to the lie detection test to find out his links with other train fire incidents at places including Haridwar, Gaya, Kharagpur and Bhubaneswar before the incident at Puri.

Besides, the investigators are also probing the terror link with these incidents.

Sources said Ramachandran’s statements given to the investigating agencies have till date reportedly remained ‘incoherent’.

Sources also added that the investigators did not get concrete clues that can blow the lid off terror link.

Earlier, GRP (Government Railway Police), Railway Protection Force (RPF), National Investigating Agency (NIA) and State Intelligence Wing (SIW) had grilled him on separate occasions. However, the investigating teams recorded incoherence in his statements following which they approached the court for a polygraph test on the accused.

The Puri SDJM (Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate) Court had allowed the GRP to conduct polygraph test of Ramachandran on November 21.

The court had earlier allowed GRP to take Subhash on five, three and again six-day remand on November 18, November 27 and December 2 respectively for further interrogation. The remand of the accused will end on Tuesday.

A major fire had broken out at Puri Station on November 12, in which some coaches of Nandankanan Express, Tirupati Express and Puri-Howrah Express.

The GRP had arrested Ramachandran from the spot with a knife, a blade and a match box.

Meanwhile, Union Home Ministry has handed over the case to NIA to probe the matter further.