Three railway employees have been arrested for allegedly conspiring to derail a train near Kim railway station in Surat district of Gujarat by removing fishplates and keys from a railway track. The attempted train derailment incident was thwarted on Saturday (21st September).
The police investigation found that the incident had been conspired. Three railway employees removed parts of the track to act out a derailment attempt, took photos and videos, and then reinstalled the missing parts in pursuit of acclaim and awards for preventing an accident.
According to Western Railway, Vadodara Division unidentified people opened the fishplate and some keys from the UP line track and put them on the same track near the Kim railway station. However, service was soon restored.
The accused persons have been identified as trackmen Subhash Podar and Manish Mistry, and a contract worker Shubham Jayswal. On Saturday, police registered a case for track damage under Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 3(5) (criminal act by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 61(2)(a) (criminal conspiracy), and 125 (rash or negligent acts that endanger human life or personal safety), among others. The accused were charged under both the Railway Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
As per reports, arrested Subhas Poddar was the one who alerted the authorities about the removed fish plates on the track. A major train derailment was avoided because the authorities were alerted and repaired the track in time.
Surat Rural SP informed that on night of 21 September, fish plates were found removed from 1.5 km of tracks between Kim and Kosamba railway stations. While Subhash Podar and his associates were busy removing the padlock and screws, around 15 trains passed from the same tracks. The accused men used to run and hide whenever a train passed. Their target was to alert the authorities about an imminent derailment before the Garib Rath train passed at 5.25 am.
Apart from recognition and rewards, the staffers were hopeful that they would be put on day shift duties from their night shift duties. Subhas Podar has been working with the Indian Railways for 9 years, as per reports.
Meanwhile, Surat SP Hitesh Joysar said: “While examining their phones, we found a few photos and videos of the removed parts from their recycle bin that were shot between 2 am and 5 am. But the alert was sent after 5 am. They could not explain this, which strengthened our doubts about their involvement.”
