New Delhi, Jan 27: The official sources said yesterday that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will be investigating the sabotage angle in the recent train derailments in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur and Andhra Pradesh’s Kuneru area following an order from the Home Ministry. On Tuesday, the NIA team had already conducted an inspection of the site in Vizianagaram near Kuneru where Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express was derailed killing around 41 people on Saturday night, to ascertain if it was an “act of terror” as the railway suspected sabotage. During the inspection, the team had a word with the railway officials and the injured at the hospital. For getting first hand information about the incident they too spoke to some eyewitnesses and passengers who were travelling in the ill-fated train.
The role of Pakistan’s snooping agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the derailment of Indore-Patna train on Nov 20 last year in Kanpur in which 150 people lost their lives is also being looked into. Three persons arrested by Bihar Police, in this connection, had claimed sabotage by the ISI. However, the NIA has found no evidence or input to this effect during its preliminary probe. Moti Paswan, Uma Shankar and Mukesh Yadav, arrested from East Champaran district of Bihar, had claimed they had received Rs 3 lakh to plant IEDs at Ghorasahan railway station on Oct 1 last year. The three had claimed they worked for the ISI and reportedly confessed about its possible role in the derailment. The NIA had registered a case in this regard and started its probe. A team of officials had also gone to Bihar to question the accused.
