A day after two blasts rocked the Kaziranga Express minutes after it pulled into Chennai Central Railway Station and media reports suggested that the State government had rejected the Centre’s offer of assistance in probing the terror attack, Chief Minister
J Jayalalithaa on Friday refuted them and said a National Investigating Agency (NIA) team comprising bomb experts had already arrived in the city to inspect the explosion site.
Earlier reports originating from New Delhi had claimed that the Tamil Nadu government had refused any help from the Centre, saying the case would be handled by the CB-CID of the State police.
In fact, earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde claimed that the Centre wanted to send the NIA team, but the State government had conveyed that the CB-CID would probe the matter.
Setting the record straight, Jayalalithaa said erroneous reports had appeared in a section of the media, giving the impression that the Centre had come forward to send the NIA, but that her government had stopped it. On
May 1, she said, a mid-level officer in the Union Home Ministry contacted the State Home Secretary and offered to send bomb detection devices or a bomb detection and disposal squad, if necessary. In response, the State Home secretary official said that assistance would be sought, if need be. She added that an NIA team was in the city to inspect the blast site.
Meanwhile, the CB-CID probing the case released grainy CCTV footage of a man on a trot after disembarking from the S3 coach immediately after the train pulled into the Chennai Central station.
Speaking to the media, CB-CID IG Mahesh Kumar Agarwal did not confirm whether the man, who appeared to be in his early 30s and bald, was being treated as a suspect. The poor quality video grab shows the man running away after getting down from coach S3 at 7:08 am. He was nowhere to be seen at the station. The first explosion rang out from coach S4 at 7:18 am. Agarwal ruled out the possibility of the bombs having been in Chennai and added that it was too early to conclude that the blasts were aimed at thwarting the Andhra rallies of BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, two persons were picked up by the Central agencies based on their investigations in Bengaluru where the train originated. Sources said the duo had been handed over to the CBCID team which arrived there on Friday.
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