RPF officials rewarded for nabbing Patna blasts accused

The railway authorities have given cash rewards to four Railway Police Force officials who caught Mohammad Imtiaz Ansari, the main accused in the serial blasts in Patna, officials said Friday.

Serial bomb blasts took place here Oct 27 during Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally and left six people dead and nearly 100 injured.

East Central Railway (ECR) general manager Madhuresh Kumar rewarded the RPF men for their courageous action, ECR Chief Public Relations Officer Amitabh Prabhakar said.

Prabhakar added that the four RPF offials are B.K. Markaria, M.M. Ansari, S.N. Ram and A.K. Brahamchari.

Imtiaz Ansari was caught by the RPF officials Oct 27 when he was trying to flee after coming out of a toilet at Patna railway station following a bomb explosion.

"Imtiaz was forced to flee after a bomb exploded when another terror suspect Ainul alias Tarique was trying to fit or fix a timer in a bomb at a Patna junction toilet," a senior RPF official said.

Ainul alias Tarique, who was seriously injured, died in a hospital here five days later.

According to Additional Director General (Special Branch) Rajesh Chandra, Imtiaz tried to mislead the officers when a police official first nabbed him.

"He said he was a tailor and had to go to Kalyanpur in Motihari. But there is no place called Kalyanpur in Motihari. In fact, Kalyanpur is in Samastipur district," Chandra said.

Police recovered a piece of paper from Imtiaz's pocket which had seven phone numbers. They also recovered his mobile phone.

Additional Director General (Railways) P.N. Rai had then described it as a big catch.

Imtiaz confessed that he and six other persons were divided into three groups with specific assignments in carrying out the blasts.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the Patna serial blasts.