New Delhi: “He left the house last Friday morning (March 31), saying he was heading to his father’s shop.” Then came reports, a relative said, that 27-year-old Shahrukh Saifi was identified as the main accused in Sunday’s Kerala train arson.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad Tuesday apprehended Saifi from Ratnagiri for allegedly spraying an inflammable liquid and setting co-passengers on fire in a moving train that had just left Kozhikode. According to the Kerala Police, Rahmath M (42), her two-year-old niece Zahra, and KP Noufiq (39) died after they jumped off the train to save their lives.
Since his arrest, Saifi’s house in south-east Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area has been crowded with relatives and neighbours, with people hooked to television screens. The family, originally from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, moved here about two decades ago. Saifi lived on the ground floor of the building along with his two younger brothers, and parents. The rest of the three-storeyed building is occupied by his paternal relatives.
According to people familiar with the probe, after the Kerala incident, Saifi allegedly reached Maharashtra in an Ajmer-bound train and got off at Kalambani railway station in Ratnagiri. He went to a hospital to get his own burn injuries (allegedly sustained in the arson) treated, but “escaped” from there as well for fear of being traced by the police.
However, the police received information about a potential suspect leaving the hospital in a hurry and caught him at the Ratnagiri railway station, Maharashtra Police officials told ThePrint.
“According to the police, he reached Kerala with that liquid and threw it on some people, taking three lives. He suffered injuries himself. How do we know that he did this on his own? He hasn’t had any fights with anyone. He wouldn’t talk much, and gets nervous when too many questions are asked. He mostly keeps to himself,” said Nasrin (she only uses her first name), a relative.
According to the family, Saifi had no hobbies — he would spend time with his younger cousins. Like his father, he started working as a carpenter about three years ago, after completing his Class 12 education from an open school. He liked to upload videos of his carpentry work on his YouTube channel, a relative said, asking not to be named.
Every day, he would either accompany his father to their Noida shop on bike or go a little later, depending on when he woke up. His only area of interest, according to his family, was carpentry. His carpentry was also what is said to have led the police to suspect Saifi — a bag allegedly found at the crime scene contained papers with designs and the name ‘Shahrukh Saifi, carpenter’ on them.
The chain of events
According to Nasrin, Saifi left the house late last Friday morning, saying that he was heading to the shop. “He took a shower, picked up his lunch box, and left. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and a pair of jeans at the time. But he never got there. His father thought he wasn’t working that day and only called asking for him in the evening. By night, we had started looking for him and asked around from his friends but couldn’t find him,” she told ThePrint.
On Sunday, the family approached the local police in Delhi with a missing person’s complaint. A general diary entry on this was made on the same day. ThePrint has a copy of the general diary entry. An official in the Delhi Police told ThePrint that Saifi has no past criminal record.
“He wouldn’t hurt anyone. No one wants to know how he went missing and was suddenly found with injuries in Ratnagiri,” said Zamila (who only uses her first name) about her son, Saifi.
According to officials in the Maharashtra Police, he was taken to Kozhikode Thursday for further questioning, after he purportedly claimed responsibility for the Kerala train incident.
When ThePrint met Saifi’s family Thursday, they appeared to be in disbelief about him being the prime suspect in the Kerala train incident. They also claimed to have been looking for him since last Friday.
Tired of being asked for information about Saifi by the media and the general public, some neighbours have distanced themselves from the family. However, Zakir, who lives in the next lane, said: “I have known this family for years. This boy has grown up in front of us… He wouldn’t do this in the right (frame of mind).”
The family said the police questioned Saifi’s father, Fakruddin (he uses only one name), his brothers, a friend and a cousin. Officials in the Delhi Police Special Cell confirmed this to ThePrint.
“They have seized our phones. They came to the house but didn’t find anything objectionable. We are a normal, lower middle class family. We have nothing to do with any political organisation,” Nasrin said.
The Maharashtra Police said the man seemed “mentally disturbed” as his statement was “not coherent”. The police teams had recovered a bag from the crime scene — his family told ThePrint that it was Saifi’s — with a bottle carrying an inflammable liquid, a mobile phone, and some notes.
The liquid allegedly used in the attack appears to be a solution used by carpenters in polishing furniture, according to investigators. The nature of the liquid will be confirmed after forensic examination, they added.
“He could not answer questions about his whereabouts in the last three days. His statement was not coherent and he seemed mentally disturbed. We found his identity cards from his possession which established his identity,” a source in the Maharashtra Police told ThePrint.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)