Kurnool accident was sabotage: Probe

Officials probing the Hyderabad-Bangalore Express accident near R.S. Pendekallu village in Kurnool district have confirmed sabotage. Accordi...

Officials probing the Hyderabad-Bangalore Express accident near R.S. Pendekallu village in Kurnool district have confirmed sabotage. According to South Central Railway officials, a team from Kurnool which visited the scene last night along with sniffer dogs found some hacksaw blades, radium cloth, cigarette and beedi butts, metal powder and broken blades in a bush 75 meters away from the place where the train jumped the rails.

Earlier reports had said the accident occurred because of a fault in the track that was laid early this year but the theory has been rejected. ‘‘The rail was vertically cut, apparently by a hacksaw, resulting in the derailment,’’ a senior official said over telephone from the accident site.

‘I’m alive because
I didn’t change coach’

Bangalore: From the debris of Friday’s accident come stories of survivors. ‘‘The TTE told us to move to coach S-14 from S-8. Had we done that, we wouldn’t be alive now. The seat we were supposed to occupy in S-14 was mangled,’’ said Jain. ‘‘The compartment was jam-packed. All of a sudden we were thrown around violently and the lights went out. I held on to my son, picked up my wife and rushed out,’’ said Parvez (27), a driver from Govindpura. Parvez and his wife Aisha Begum, who is pregnant, sustained injuries, while their son escaped unhurt. —ENS

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Another report from Kurnool said that police suspect the mishap to be an outcome of a plot hatched a month ago, probably by extremists or ISI agents.

According to District Superintendent of Police Sanjay, police have information of a meeting held by members of an extremist group at the same place last month. A detailed probe is awaited, he said. Commissioner, (Railway Safety) South Central circle, D.P. Agrawal, will start a two-day inquiry from tomorrow. He is likely to submit the preliminary report within 10 days.

Meanwhile, the authorities relaid the track this afternoon. Twenty passengers were killed and more than 75 injured in the accident.

The authorities have so far identified 13 bodies. They are Mehboob Pasha, Sajjan Raj, Venkatanarayana, Devadas, C. Vandana, Sivashankar, Rathod, Rajyalaxmi, Thimmaiah, Dana Reddy, Ramanjaneyulu, Ravichandra and Venkatalaxmamma.

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A Railway official said the engine passed off the ‘‘cut tracks’’ but six coaches next to it rolled down the mini culvert due to the impact of a jerk.

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