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The UP top cop’s statement made to The Quint seems to rubbish the recent alarming – and maybe even outlandish – claim by the Bihar police that the ISI was behind the derailment of the Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur in November 2016. The accident had left almost 150 dead. A senior official in the safety department of the railways that The Quint spoke to also trashed the Bihar cops’ theory.
Bihar police had declared that it has arrested three criminals who allegedly confessed to their role in planting a cooker bomb that caused the derailment.
UP DGP Ahmad also said that the sabotage theory is being probed. He added that the sabotage claim made by Bihar police needs to be corroborated with evidence.
Bihar police had recently arrested Motilal Paswan, Umashankar Patel and Mukesh Rai, who were allegedly hired through handlers based in Nepal and Dubai and linked to the ISI to plant bombs in public places and railway tracks.
Jitendra Rana, SP of Bihar’s East Champaran district, where the suspects were arrested, said that UP cops are now looking into the matter. “We have shared information on the Kanpur train accident with UP police and other investigating agencies. Now, they are probing the matter.”
In fact, a UP anti-terrorism squad (ATS) team has already reached Bihar to interrogate the arrested accused.
On November 21 last year, the Indore-Patna Express went off the tracks at Pukhrayan in UP. The accident killed 148 people and several others were injured.
Besides the UP DGP, a senior official in the safety department of the railways also junked the Bihar cops’ seemingly dodgy claim. The official told The Quint:
Generally, a preliminary report is submitted within 24 hours of a mishap by the senior-most official at the site of the accident based on the evidence. According to a retired railway safety officer, in case of a rail fracture, the train will fall on its side and this is exactly what happened in this accident. He too said that it could not have been an act of sabotage.
The UP top cop and senior railway officials are as of now clearly ruling out the sabotage theory. Nevertheless, UP police though is not ignoring the claims made by the trio arrested by the Bihar cops. Further investigation will reveal truth whether it was a derailment due to a rail fracture or an ISI-backed terror attack.
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