PUNE, February 16: Little did the passengers and regular commuters aboard the Mumbai-bound train on a lazy Sunday morning realise that they were a hair's breadth away from a major rail accident, as it chugged along the tampered rail tracks between Khandala and Monkey Hill section. The railway officials have not ruled out sabotage.A major rail accident was averted between the Khandala and Monkey Hill section on Sunday morning as an alert keyman Narayan Shivram Kajale immediately reported the tampering of the track by miscreants. While the police suspect it to be the handiwork of senseless petty thieves, the railway officials have taken serious congnisance of the incident and have raised the sabotage angle in their police complaint.Timely action of protecting the track by suspending the rail traffic between Khandala and Monkey Hill in tunnel number 25 was taken after the keyman Kajale reported the theft of copper bonds by opening of fish plates at three joints. Keyman Narayan Shivram Kajale who was on hisrounds on Sunday, between the chainage 5-7 at km 121/6-7, noticed that the number three of RH rail joints (continuous) opened and copper bonds of the same joints had been removed.What has led the railway officials to strongly believe that it could be sabotage is that Sunday's incident was the second of its kind following close on the heels of a similar case of miscreants tampering with the rail tracks by removing copper bonds at five joints between the Lonavla and Khandala section on middle and down road on Jan 28.
