New Delhi: Nobody in his neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi doubted Shah Rukh Saifi, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala Police on Wednesday morning for his alleged involvement in the Kozhikode train arson case in Ratnagiri. Apart from a reticent young man who minded his own business and didn’t interact much with the locals. Even her family did not suspect his of anti-social tendencies and Saifi’s father, worried after he went missing since March 31, lodged a missing complaint with the local police station.
A family member revealed, “The police came around 10 am on Tuesday to see if he was here.” “On Wednesday, they came and told us about his arrest, searched his room and took some documents.” Saifi’s house was raided several times as Kerala and Delhi police launched a manhunt for the suspected arsonist who torched the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express that killed three people, including a child.
Delhi Police has also started digging into Saifi’s history and tracing his alleged network.
Saifi lives with his two younger brothers, parents and grandmother in a three-room house on the ground floor of a house in Shaheen Bagh’s FC block. His father, Fakhruddin, claimed to News paper that his son had never been to any other state before and it was difficult for the family to accept that he was involved in such a serious matter.
Fakhruddin insisted, “We have been living in this area for 15 years and Shah Rukh has never gone out of Delhi. He is shy and does not interact much with others outside the family.”
Apparently, every morning Saifi used to leave for the carpentry shop in Nithari village of Noida Sector 31 with his father. The father said, “On Friday, Shahrukh told me that he would come late to the shop.” Rasoola, a relative, said that when the son did not turn up at the shop, the father called Farooq, the other son, who told him that Saifi had already left the house. After this the youth could not be contacted.
When Saifi’s family was unable to trace him for three days, they filed a missing report on April 2, but later learned that he had been arrested in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. “We don’t know how he reached the other state. He didn’t take any money from home,” Rasoola said.
Fakhruddin said Saifi passed Class XII from a government school and then started helping him at the carpentry shop. “He was not associated with any group or party and had no criminal record. And he always behaved normally,” he added.
The residents of the area called Saifi a bachelor. They claimed that they never saw him talking to anyone and that he left his house only when he had to go to the shop. Faheem, a local resident, said he was shocked to hear that Saifi had been arrested as he never moved around like other youths and did not interact much with other people in the area. Sarfaraz also said that Saifi had never spoken to him in the 14 years that he lived in the street. There were many others who claimed to have never even seen him.