The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has set up a camp in Kanpur, close to the site where coaches of the Indore-Rajendranagar Express derailed on November 20, as it tries to join the dots in at least three train accidents, claimed to have been orchestrated at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI.
A senior Home Ministry official said the agency would clinically examine the accident site and the mangled coaches, still lying on either side of the tracks, to ascertain if there was any sabotage behind the derailment that killed more than 140 people.
In all, names of 10 people had surfaced during the probe, an NIA official said.
While two — Dipak Ram and Arun — are said to have been killed, three — Braj Kishore Giri, Mojahir Ansari and Shambhu alias Laddu — are in the custody of the Bihar police. Zubair and Ziyaullah are in the Delhi police’s custody. The other two are Shafi Sheikh, who is said to be in Karachi, and Shamshul Hoda, a Nepalese businessman is said to be in Dubai.
The Home Ministry had asked the NIA to probe the claims made by the three accused arrested by the Bihar police for allegedly planting a powerful bomb packed in a pressure cooker on a track in Ghorasahan of East Champaran district on October 1. The IED was defused by the police. Paswan, one of the accused had told the police that they planted the bomb on the instructions of Pakistan’s ISI.
He also said that the ISI was involved in the Kanpur train accident of November 20 and that he and two others had travelled to the accident site to place the IED.
‘No explosives found’
U.P. DGP Javeed Ahmed had told The Hindu earlier that the claims of the accused could not be corroborated and the preliminary investigation done by the police did not find any trace of explosives on the tracks.
“We are yet to get the custody of Paswan, his sustained interrogation will reveal if it was tall talk or if there is anything substantive in his claims,” said the official.
The NIA will also take into account the report of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), which investigates all the major train accidents in the country.
As reported by The Hindu , a preliminary probe had not found any evidence of sabotage and identified ‘carriage and wagon defects’ as the main reason for the accident.
“We have asked the CRS to submit its report. Reports from other accidents are also being collated to examine if there was a pattern in the derailments,” said the official.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the possibility of sabotage in at least six train accidents in the last one year.
