IANS/Chennai
The Tamil Nadu Police yesterday said they found the movements of a bald man who disembarked from the train and ran away before the twin bomb blasts as unusual and would like to question him during investigation.
Speaking to reporters here, Inspector General of Police at the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) Maheshkumar Agarwal said: “We found the movements of a bald person getting down from the S3 coach and running away as unusual from the CCTV footage. His movements were unusual.”
The two bombs were placed in S4 and S5 coaches.
Agarwal said the presence of the bald and stocky man will be important for the probe into the bomb blasts on the Bangalore-Guwahati train on Thursday that killed one woman and injured 14 others.
Agarwal stressed that the police does not consider the man as a suspect in the case but sought his presence in the investigation to clarify his unusual movements.
He said the man got off the train at 7.08am. The two bombs went off in succession at around 7.15am.
According to Agarwal the man was not seen getting on the train at the Chennai Central station but running away.
The police officer said the investigating team is also checking the camera footage at all other stations between Bangalore and Chennai Central stations.
According to him, there is no evidence to suggest that the bombs could have been planted at the Chennai station. He said the forensic science wing has recovered some pieces of cloth and metallic parts that indicate it to be a time bomb variety.
The train was scheduled to reach Chennai Central at 5.40am but was running late by 90 minutes and entered the station at 7.05am.
Ruling out the connection of the arrested Sri Lankan Mohamed Zakir Hussain with the blasts, he said the investigation team is pursuing some leads in Bangalore.
Agarwal said the agency is co-ordinating with police of all the neighbouring states and is also following various leads.
The police team will also check the antecedents of some people who had booked tickets for the train but did not board.
Meanwhile, a six-member National Security Guard (NSG) team that arrived in Chennai on Thursday night inspected the two affected bogies of the train yesterday.
Tamil Nadu Police had received intelligence warning early last month that four militants aged between 20 and 25 years were in Sri Lanka and planning to carry out serial bomb blasts in the state between April 15 and 17 with local help.
The bomb attacks would happen in Madurai, Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) and Chennai, the intelligence reports had warned. People who were planning to carry out the attacks, would travel from Sri Lanka to India as businessmen and arrive at Tiruvanathapuram, Chennai, Bangalore and Trichy airports, it said.
