The Uttar Pradesh Railway Police chief has said that there was no sabotage in the Indore-Patna Express derailment incident which took place in November 2016 near Kanpur, The Hindu reported on Wednesday. At least 140 people were killed in the incident. This comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the train accident was a “conspiracy” carried out by people “sitting across the border”.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who had organised a video conference on Monday to discuss the safety measures, suggested that there was “sabotage” involved in the recent train accidents. The National Investigation Agency is conducting probe into three such cases, he said.
However, Director General of Railways, Uttar Pradesh Police, Gopal Gupta, said the derailment near Kanpur was because of “fatigue of railway tracks”. The official also added that there were no traces of explosives found at the accident site. Prabhu was not present in the conference when Gupta made these claims.
“The Kanpur rail accident, in which hundreds of people were killed was a conspiracy and the conspirators carried it out sitting across the border,” Modi had said on February 24 while addressing a rally in UP’s Gonda district.
Shamshul Hoda, the alleged mastermind behind the Kanpur train derailment, was arrested from Kathmandu airport on February 7. On January 17, the Bihar police had arrested three suspects – Uma Shankar, Moti Paswan and Mukesh Yadav – who had confessed to having worked for a Nepal-based agent, who had connections with Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence. The accused had reportedly told investigators that they were given Rs 3 lakh to plant explosives on the Ghorasahan railway track.
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