Date:12/09/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/09/12/stories/2002091204080100.htm

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Row over sabotage theory

By Sandeep Dikshit

The derailed bogies of the Rajdhani Express at the Dhava bridge near Rafigang, Aurangabad, on Tuesday. — Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

NEW DELHI SEPT. 11. The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, and the Railway Board Chairman, I.I.M.S. Rana, today recanted the sabotage theory in relation to the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani express tragedy which had raised eyebrows among those in the know of the reasons.

Both of them, under instructions from the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, today said that no opinion on the cause of the accident would be aired till the Commissioner of Railway Safety submitted the preliminary report. Railway officials who had reached the spot were also asked not to publicly state the prima facie reason for the accident.

Emerging from a meeting with Mr. Advani, the Railway Minister said it would not be appropriate to state the probable cause of this year's ghastliest accident. On Tuesday, while Mr. Kumar and his Railway Board officials felt that sabotage was the cause for the derailment of the speeding train, Mr. Advani and the Bihar Government did not appear to endorse this view.

Mr. Kumar also maintained that his Ministry was not interested in joining issue with the Bihar Government, which has debunked the sabotage theory and counselled Mr. Kumar to examine the current practice of maintaining tracks and rolling stock.

Meanwhile, the toll in the accident near Gaya on Monday night is expected to cross the 100-mark with rescue operations having been nearly completed. It has also emerged that monsoon patrolling on the bridge and its subsidence-prone vicinity was not carried out on that fateful night.

Though the patrolman was supposed to reach there at 9 p.m., there was no sign of the staffer 90 minutes later when the Rajdhani Express, the most prestigious train on the Gomoh-Mughalsarai section, crashed into the rivulet. Officials are not expecting to pull out any more survivors and have put the number of bodies counted so far at 90. Some more bodies will be prised out of the mangled coaches with the help of gas cutters. Operations were suspended on Tuesday night due to intermittent rain and resumed today with the Army once again lending a helping hand.

In a related development, the Army, which was engaged in rescue operations soon after the accident, de-requisitioned itself on the ground that most of the work was over. Led by the Commandant of ASC (North) Gaya, Brigadier R.K. Kohli, the Army had also summoned units from Namkum (Ranchi), Danapaur and Ramgarh in view of the surprisingly tardy effort by the railway staff.

A surgical team from the Army also joined the relief operations while the adventure club of the Army at Gaya made available a micro light aircraft for survey operations.

As expected, Mr. Kumar came under fire from several political parties with some demanding his resignation and others calling for a judicial probe in view of the conflicting statements by senior Central Ministers. The Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (Secular) and the CPI-ML (Liberation) sought the Minister's ouster, while the Congress, CPI and CPI(M) said the cause of the accident should be probed by a judicial authority.