Expressing concern over what he called a spate of “sabotage attempts” on trains, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said he would rather not pin the blame on anyone right now for the train derailment near Kanpur last year that killed 151 people, as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was probing the matter.
“I won’t be able to comment on the NIA investigation. One thing is for sure that there has been an unusual activity in the Railways in the past few days. We have noticed that there are several sabotage attempts. When we noticed them, we handed over the matter to the NIA,” Mr. Prabhu said, in an exclusive interview to The Hindu , dismissing suggestions that the Central government was looking for ‘scapegoats.’
“In fact, the original evidence [on sabotage] was noticed by the Bihar Police, not Central authorities,” he said.
ISI role in accidents
The NIA had registered a case after three accused arrested by the Bihar Police in a separate case said that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the derailments.
The Minister also refused to comment on the arrest of Nepali businessman Shamsul Hoda in Kathmandu.
Indian investigating agencies claimed his arrest was linked to the derailment, but Kathmandu police had clarified that he had been arrested for a murder case in Nepal. Referring to the Kanpur derailment of the Indore-Patna express, Mr. Prabhu also would not comment on initial reports from the Committee on Railway Safety that said “carriage and wagon defects” could have been responsible for the tragedy.
“In an accident, obviously the [rail] track will break or there will be some problems in coaches. But is it a consequence or cause of the accident? I am not an expert and I am not making a value judgement today. I am just saying that we need to understand the forensics behind it because it is very unusual that so many people die due to derailment.,” Mr. Prabhu said.
The government, he said, was open to all options including a cess on tickets to help improve its railway safety record, indicating that the newly set up “railway safety fund” of ₹100,000 crore would be used to “increase [rail] speeds, eliminate unmanned level crossings and replace [old] coaches.”
In the interview, Mr. Prabhu defended the rail safety record under his tenure. “Barring the two-three accidents – the exact cause of which we now know [referring to suspected sabotage] – you look at our safety records in the last few months. We have to distinguish between sabotage and accidents,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Minister said in Parliament that the number of “consequential” rail accidents had remained the same at 95 in 2016-17 compared to the preceding year.
However, the Railway Ministry spokesperson told The Hindu that the Railways suspect “sabotage” in at least 26 accidents that occurred in 2016 and as many as nine accidents in 2017.
