Shaheen Bagh link to Kerala train attack: 'Introverted, Shahrukh Saifi never went out of Delhi'

NEW DELHI: No one in his neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi suspected Shahrukh Saifi, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala Police in Ratnagiri on Wednesday morning for his alleged involvement in the Kozhikode train arson case, of being any other than a reticent young man, who minded his own business and did not interact much with the local people. Even his family did not suspect him of antisocial inclinations, and, worried after he went missing from March 31, Saifi's father filed a missing person complaint at the local police station.

"Police came around 10am on Tuesday to check if he was here," a family member disclosed. "On Wednesday, they came and told us about his arrest, searched his room and took away some documents." Saifi's home was raided several times as police from Kerala and Delhi began their pursuit of the suspected arsonist who caused a fire on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express in which three people, including a child, died.
Delhi Police has also begun digging into Saifi's history and determining 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 at FC Block in Shaheen Bagh. His father, Fakhruddin, claimed to TOI that his son had never visited any other state in the past and that it was hard for the family to accept he was involved in such a serious case.
"We have been living in this locality for 15 years and Shahrukh has never ever gone out of Delhi. He is shy and does not interact much with others outside of the family," Fakhruddin insisted.

Apparently, every morning Saifi left with his father for their carpentry shop in Nithari village in Noida Sector 31. "On Friday, Shahrukh told me that he would come late to the shop," the father said. A relative, Rasula, narrated that when the son did not turn up at the shop, the father phoned the other son, Farooq, who told him that Saifi had already left home. After that, the young man went incommunicado.
When Saifi's family was unable to locate him for three days, they filed a missing person report on April 2 only to learn later that he had been arrested in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. "We have no clue how he reached another state. He hadn't taken any money from home," said Rasula.

Fakhruddin said Saifi passed his 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 did not have a criminal record. And he always behaved normally," he said.
Area residents described Saifi as a loner. They claimed they never saw him talk to anyone and that he came out of his home only when he had to go to the shop. Faheem, a local resident, said he was shocked to hear that Saifi had been arrested because he never roamed around aimlessly like the other youths or interacted much with other people in the locality. Sarfaraz too said Saifi had never spoken to him in the 14 years that he had lived on the lane. There were several others who claimed never even to have seen him.