NIA yet to find proof of sabotage in U.P. derailment

No response from IIT despite several reminders, says agency

152 passengers were killed after the Patna-bound Express derailed.

Almost a year after the derailment of the Patna-bound Indore-Rajendranagar Express near Kanpur claimed over 150 lives, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is yet to get any evidence of “sabotage.”

The former Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, had alleged sabotage in two train accidents — Kanpur and Kuneru — and sent a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding a probe by the NIA.

Multiple reminders sent by the NIA to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) experts, who have been asked to aid the investigations, have gone unanswered.

“We roped in a team of IIT experts to ascertain the cause of accident. We have sent them three reminders but have not got any response,” said an NIA official. The IIT team visited both the Kanpur and Kuneru accident sites and collected samples.

Another official said the expert committee’s report was vital to their investigations.

On November 20 last year, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound Express derailed between the Pokhrayan and Malasa railway stations in Uttar Pradesh killing at least 152 passengers and injuring 183.

Over 40 people were killed when the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Express derailed near Kuneru in Andhra Pradesh on January 22.

A report by the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad said that “no traces of explosives were found” at the accident site in Kuneru.

During an election rally in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh on February 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the Kanpur accident was “a conspiracy and conspirators carried it out sitting across the border.”