In two train mishaps with sabotage doubt, no chargesheet yet

That year, in a chargesheet filed in connection with the Ghorasahan train bombing case of Motihari district in Bihar, the NIA mentioned one suspect telling another that another group had successfully carried out a sabotage activity in Kanpur. The agency, however, could not file a chargesheet in the Kanpur train accident case.

A railways enquiry had held “mechanical failure” as one of the probable causes and found one of the coaches suffering “severe corrosion, old breakage and a poor quality of welding”.

In the Kuneru train accident that claimed 40 lives, the NIA registered a case under the UAPA after an MHA order pointed to “Maoist” hand. The NIA that was probing the case has not yet filed a chargesheet.

Sources said the agency’s probe has not yet reached any conclusion to fix anyone’s culpability even though it has ruled out the theory of sabotage.

In 2017, months after taking over the probe into the Kuneru accident of Hirakhand Express, NIA had sent material recovered from the accident site to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Hyderabad to detect traces of explosives on broken rail pieces, coach parts and the gravel under the tracks. Nothing was found and a bomb blast was ruled out.

Following this the agency took help of IIT Kanpur to conduct a simulation exercise based on the circumstances and material provided to them. However, even this did not throw up anything on sabotage.

In fact, the NIA FIR itself was based on suspicion as it mentioned that the accident may have been sabotage activity carried out by Maoists as the region is Naxal affected.

In 2020, an enquiry by the railways concluded that the accident was caused by a “fractured” part of the track. The final probe report, prepared by Commissioner of Railway Safety (South Central Circle) Ram Kripal, stated that “the accident occurred due to fracture of tongue rail”.

In this case too, NIA is yet to file a chargesheet.