BHUBANESWAR: Even as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is trying to trace Ramachandran Subash’s contacts with the Mumbai module, the premier agency is also looking into his possible role behind a blast in Chennai.
Sources said when the Puri train torching case hit headlines and the lone accused’s claims of links with terror outfits surfaced, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) first alerted the NIA. The IB apparently wanted the NIA to probe if the Tamil youth was also behind the Chennai blast.
It was during this period that the State Police sought the premier probe agency’s help in the Puri train coaches burning incident and wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Now with the NIA at the helm of investigation, the agency is closely examining Subash’s polygraph test reports which suggested that he was in contact with Riaz, stated to be an operative of a Mumbai module. Basing on the call records of the accused, the agency is scanning the modules which are active or recently vanished from the grid.
While investigators are aware that polygraph test results have an accuracy rate of 52-55 per cent, they are also looking at organisations using Subash as a front to fan communal disharmony.
The accused’s murky past has only strengthened the suspicion of investigators. He worked in four hotels - three in Chennai and one in Tirunelveli - in the past but in no place of his employment, he used his real name. Similarly, in no workplace was his exit cordial.
“During verification, it was found that he used different names in all hotels and had run away with petty cash in most cases. Since the cash stolen was low, not many registered a case,” said the sources. Currently, there is one criminal case registered and pending against him.
Subash even has had issues of stealing cash from his friends and on one occasion, he had fled with the ATM card of an acquaintance.