Eight passengers who had reserved their tickets in the Bangalore-Guwahati Super Express and did not board the train could provide the breakthrough in Thursday’s explosions in the train at Chennai Central Railway Station which claimed one life and injured 14 passengers.
A special investigation team of the CB-CID of the CB-CID, Chennai Police, probing the twin bomb explosions suspects that the explosives were planted in the train at Bangalore railway station.
A team of the SIT has rushed to Bangalore to probe the possibilities of the perpetrators planting the explosives, which was described as Improvised explosive device by an official of the Chennai Police.
The CB-CID team probing the explosions is tight-lipped about the progress of the investigation. All they said is that the investigation is focussed on eight passengers who had tickets to travel in the ill-fated train but who did not board it. “We are checking the antecedents of all the passengers who have booked their tickets in the train. Efforts are on to examine the CCTV footages of passengers boarding the train at Bangalore,” said a Chennai Police official.
The CB-CID team is in touch with their counterparts in the neighbouring States. “We are coordinating with police authorities of all neighbouring States. But we do not want to disclose anything more as it may hamper investigations,” said Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, IG, CB-CID, told reporters.
The Superintendent of Police (Special Branch-CID) had forewarned the State police on April 8, 2014 that Islamic extremists trained at Pakistan were on the prowl in the State and they may strike at various places targeting vital installations and prominent political leaders.
A senior intelligence official told The Pioneer that Al Umma and Indian Mujahideen are active in Tamil Nadu and the blasts could be their handiwork. “What is bothering us is why they chose Chennai as the State has been considered as a heaven for their grouping, planning and meetings,” said the official.
A team of the National Security Guards led by lt Col Balkrishna has reached Chennai to help the CB-CID to unravel more information connected with the kind of materials used in the explosion.
Seema Agarwal, IG, Railway Police, told The Pioneer that there was nothing abnormal in P Swathi, the software engineer who was killed in the blast, shifting her seat from S4 to S5. “She was allocated seat no 9 in S4 but she opted to shift to seat no 28 in S5. The blast occurred underneath seat no 28. It could be a coincidence,” she said.