BHUBANESWAR/PURI: As the National Investigation Agency (NIA) tries to put together the missing links in Puri train coaches arson accused Ramachandran Subash’s alleged terror connection, it has sought to establish a transit office in the Pilgrim Town.
SP-ranked officer of NIA Prashant Kumar on Monday requested Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal for logistics support for the agency’s investigation into the sensational case. The request includes two rooms and a vehicle for two months so that NIA can continue its probe.
Agarwal immediately allotted two rooms at the Special Circuit House and arranged for mobility for the NIA sleuths.
The premier investigating agency, which has taken up the investigation, has started the probe from the scratch so that it can piece together the case as well as the material and forensic evidence which have been gathered by the State agencies. It is also looking to spot the missing links in the case, if any, and gather more evidence in the process.
While the Railway Protection Force, which had first arrested Subash, had collected CCTV video footage from Puri, Bhubaneswar and Kharagpur railway stations, an expert team of State Forensic Science Laboratory conducted examination of the burnt train coaches. It also subjected Subash to polygraph test.
Last week, an NIA forensic team, which is camping in Puri, carried out analysis of the torched coaches.
The national agency is also set to seek remand of Subash for interrogation on its own. So far, it has been quizzing the accused along with officials of the State Police since Government Railway Police had got custody of the Tamil youth.
Subash has claimed to be part of a Mumbai terror module and asserted links with operatives called Riaz and Uttam. He also confessed to taking money for the train coaches torching. However, very little of his claims have been substantiated so far in absence of corroborative evidence.