Fairy Queen loot: no FIR,only a cover-up plan

To begin with,the Railway Protection Force (RPF) never filed any FIR but dealt with it only through a joint departmental memo to lodge the complaint

As the Railway Ministry on Thursday initiated a fresh probe into the theft of heritage steam locomotive Fairy Queens valuable spare parts,case details accessed by The Indian Express revealed a major cover-up job for months by everyone directly concerned,leaving those responsible for actually protecting the 156-year-old property untouched.

To begin with,the Railway Protection Force (RPF) never filed any FIR but dealt with it only through a joint departmental memo to lodge the complaint. Interestingly,the case memo (C-3/Mechanical/14032011) first filed by the penalised Section Engineer stated that Fairy Queen had earlier been found in sound condition during a routine inspection a statement later found to be false.

The official said he wrote that following pressure from the RPF,something the RPF refuted. Faced with inquiry,the RPF claimed that in the beginning,officials did not know exactly what parts were missing.

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It has been reliably learnt that railway officials were in a fix,realising that at least 10 items in the huge list of missing spare parts were as good as irreplaceable. But the value put on these 10 items was a measly Rs 12,000. The list states that the whistle,the lubricator,the pressure gauge pipe,tube,a few kinds of cocks and the dome are intrinsic to the Fairy Queen.

Following the discovery,the engine was sent off to the steam loco shed in Rewari in Haryana ostensibly to fix a boiler leakage even though the Rewari shed has no facility to fix such a problem. The National Rail Museum,too,did not take possession of the loco. The top brass of RPF failed to take any step against its men even though it is the RPFs job to protect railway valuables.

Now,the Railway Board has sought reports from the Northern Railway,the RPF and the National Rail Museum,which,finally hauled the loco out to send it to Chennai on Thursday.

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