Three railway workers were arrested in Gujarat’s Surat district on Monday for allegedly disrupting the tracks and warning officials of “vandalism” to take credit for averting a possible train accident, police said.
Surat Rural Superintendent of Police (SP) Hotesh Joysar said the three employees — Subhash Poddar (39), Manish Mistry (28) and Shubham Jaiswal (26) — are professionals in the train maintenance department. He went on to say that the suspects do something like this for fun.
The Surat police started an investigation after some unidentified persons allegedly disturbed the railway tracks by removing fish plates and loosening a few bolts in an attempt to derail the trains on September 21.
The SP said that Poddar and others, while they were on inspection between Kosamba and Kim stations, reported to the authorities at 5:30 am on September 21 about “thieves” removing elastic clips and two fish plates from one set of tracks and placing them on another to cause disruption. the train.
According to the SP, the suspects who were working at night sent a video of the damaged truck to the elderly when they reported it. He also said that Railway officials had informed the police that a train had crossed the track before it was discovered that it had been tampered with.
“The time of discovery of the disturbance and the passing of the train was very short and it was not possible to remove the clips and plates in such a short time. We checked the mobile phones of these three and found the videos of the songs that were shot. at different times starting from 2:56 am to 4:57 am, Mistry has deleted the photos that he had taken,” said SP Joysar.
The photos and videos taken were taken before the accused reported the incident to the authorities around 05:30 in the morning, said the SP, adding that the police became suspicious later.
The three suspects confessed to the crime after being subjected to difficult questions and explained that they did this act to ensure that they would be respected and reinvested in night work, which would give them time to spend with their families during the day.
“It was Poddar who came up with this idea because their night work of visiting the storms was about to come to an end,” said SP Joysar.
He emphasized that the defendant, for each period of night work, would get a day off the next day and wanted this program to continue.
The police earlier said that unknown people took out two fish plates that connected the ends of the rail and placed them on the parallel rail and loosened 40-50 bolts that hung the rail and concrete sleepers.
The police have registered a case against the accused under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and the Railways Act, which can lead to life imprisonment and even the death penalty.
They are also investigating whether there is anything related to terrorism and Naxalism in this incident.
(with comments from PTI and Sanjay Rathod)