Three youths were detained by Surat Rural police on Monday for allegedly trying to derail the Garib Rath Express headed to Mumbai from Delhi to “cause mass casualties”, after some fishplates were found missing from the tracks.
“Apart from this, 71 ERC (elastic rail clips – used to fasten rails to sleepers) were also removed from different locations and placed on the tracks,” the police FIR reads. The train had been forced to stop at Kim Railway station in Surat district early Saturday morning after patrolling staff discovered the missing two joggled fishplates.
For the past two days, officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), Surat Rural police, the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had been reportedly struggling to identify the accused. Technical surveillance equipment and human intelligence sources were used to eventually identify the accused on Monday. Hundreds of police staffers patrolled the areas around the tracks to find clues, besides checking nearby industrial labour colonies and speaking to several people. A high-ranking police official with Surat Rural police said that details of the people arrested, and their “motive”, would be “revealed” soon.
short article insertThe complaint in the case was filed on Saturday by Sanklap Kansara, working as a junior engineer with Western Railway at the Vadodara division, at Kim police station.
“Subhash Poddar, posted at Kim Railway station, was patrolling on the tracks at Kim on Saturday early morning, Nearby the railway bridge on Kim creek, he spotted three unknown youths moving suspiciously on the tracks. Poddar flashed a torchlight on them and directed them to come nearer but they escaped from the spot in nearby bushes taking advantage of the darkness,” the police FIR states, before mentioning the missing items.
The FIR further adds, “The motive behind it is to derail the 12910 Garib Rath Express train (Travelling between Delhi to Mumbai Bandra Terminus) and cause mass casualties of passengers travelling in.”
Kansara in his complaint had said that he got the message from Subhash Poddar early in the morning, as a result of which the Garib Rath express train was put on halt.
Railway sources said that after the joggled fishplates and ECIs were refitted, the train resumed its journey to Mumbai.
The three accused have been booked under BNS Act sections 3(5) (“when a criminal act is done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as if it were done by him alone”), 61(2)(a) (criminal conspiracy), 62 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonments), 125 (acts done rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others), and Railway Act sections 150 (1) (a) and 150(2)(b).