Kannur train arson: Detained Kolkata man to be arrested soon, police say

Kannur: The railway police here on Thursday nabbed Pushanjit Sidgar (40) who hails from Kolkata, West Bengal in connection with the fire in an empty coach of Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express that had pulled in at Kannur railway station.

The arrest is likely to be registered soon, the police said.

Officials confirmed the fingerprints collected by the forensic experts from the burnt coach matched with Pushanjit's.

“Out of the 10 fingerprints collected from the train coach that was gutted in the , forensic team confirmed that four belonged to Pushanjit,” police said.

In his statement to the police, the man claimed that he is a beggar.

The incident occurred on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train in which two months ago a man had set fire to his co-passengers, which resulted in three deaths including tthat of a toddler, leading to speculation that it might be a case of sabotage and may be linked to the earlier one.

Sleuths from central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau and National Investigation Agency arrived at the scene on Thursday morning.

At the same time,  NIA will not initiate a probe into the case soon, a source said. Reportedly the police are investigating all angles, including sabotage.