Railways has approached NIA to investigate sabotage incidents on tracks: Minister

The Indian Railways is working closely with all state governments, director generals of police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to track miscreants who are trying to derail train operations and cause harm to passengers by placing objects on tracks, Union minister for railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.

“The entire railway administration is on alert and is taking this matter seriously. We are constantly in touch with all state governments. State DGPs, Home Secretaries, and the NIA are also involved... Strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to cause any accident. This is our commitment. The entire railway administration is working with great alertness,” Vaishnaw said while interacting with media persons in Jaipur.

Vaishnaw said his ministry is working with all zones and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to get to the root of the matter.

“We will take strict action against anyone and everyone behind such illegal activities. The administration is working hard to ensure that no such incidents are repeated and that we can track down the offenders,” he said.

The minister, however, did not elaborate on the NIA’s role.

NIA is yet to officially register any case to look into suspected sabotage incidents on the railway tracks but an official confirmed that they are “informally” looking into it.

“We look into all railways’ accidents informally and assist local police/other agencies in investigation to probe it from conspiracy angle. We are yet to get any official order from the government to file a case and probe a large conspiracy into recent incidents,” said an official, who didn’t want to be named.

The development comes close on the heels of several instances when locomotive pilots have spotted harmful objects on railway tracks, aimed at causing the train to derail or harming the lives of passengers.

On September 22, the driver of a goods train, heading to Prayagraj from Kanpur, spotted a gas cylinder on the track and slammed the emergency brakes just in time to evade a disaster. A similar incident occurred on September 15 when a damaged cylinder along with other harmful objects were found just before Kalindi Express halted in Kanpur.

On September 21, unidentified men opened a fishplate and key on a track in Uttar Pradesh and fled. Keyman Subhash Kumar raised an alarm, and upcoming trains were made to stop before the point of the incident. The railways earlier on Tuesday arrested three employees for allegedly conspiring to derail the train.

In another incident, nine rods were recovered from the tracks on the Bhatinda-Delhi route on Sunday around 3am.