Bhubaneswar, Nov. 19: The Government Railway Police (GRP) would seek court's permission to conduct polygraph test on Ramachandran Subash, 27, who was arrested in connection with the fire mishap in three express trains at Puri railway station on November 12.

The decision was taken following suspicion that the accused, a native of Tamil Nadu, could be linked to some terrorist outfits as was made out of his statements to the reporters yesterday while he was being produced in a local court in Puri.

Subash had told mediapersons that his friend Uttam had invited him to Calcutta to celebrate Diwali and there he was introduced to four to five suspicious-looking people speaking Bengali.

The accused even said some of these people with whom he had been introduced in Calcutta were present in the holy town when the fire incident took place.

"Investigation so far has not revealed any possible terror links in the incident. However, we will conduct a polygraph test of the accused to ascertain the veracity of his statement," said a GRP official. He also said the police would visit Tamil Nadu for further investigation in the case. Subash, a mason by profession, was taken on remand by the GRP for six days.

Fire broke out in compartments S-11 and S-12 of the New Delhi-Puri Nandankanan Express on platform No. 4 while two compartments (S-2 and S-3) of the Tirupati-Puri Express stationed at platform No. 2 around 4pm. Subse-quently, fire spread to a general compartment of the Puri-Howrah Express stationed at platform No. 6. However, there was no casualty as all the compartments were vacant during the incident.

Double murder

Six police teams have been sent to Kandhamal and Ganjam to nab the criminals involved in the murder case of septuagenarian doctor couple at Sailashree Vihar on Sunday. Though the police believe that the maidservant working with couple for the past two years is the mastermind behind the murder of Prafulla Mishra, 71, and Sushama Mishra, 70, a formal arrest is yet to be made. The police said loot was the motive behind the crime.

The cops said three out of the five suspected persons, who assisted the maidservant in executing the crime, have fled to Soroda in Ganjam and Daringibadi in Kandhamal following the incident. The police also suspect that two others have escaped to Bengal.