Three Attacks in 12 Days: Stones Pelted at Vande Bharat Express Train, Again

Just few days ago, the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express was vandalised by unidentified miscreants.

Preliminary investigation by the RPF revealed that a few kids playing near the coach complex at Kancharapalem in Andhra Pradesh had pelted stones at the train on Wednesday night.

(Image: Press Information Bureau)

Just days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the high-speed Vande Bharat express train between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, a second incident of vandalism was reported.

Unidentified persons pelted stones at a coach of the new Vande Bharat train at the railway yard in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, 11 January.

Here's what happened: On Wednesday, a rake of the Vande Bharat train arrived from Chennai for maintenance checks.

Preliminary investigation by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) revealed that a few kids playing near the coach complex at Kancharapalem had pelted stones at the train on Wednesday night. Two glass window panes were fully shattered, said police.

Two glass window panes were fully shattered.

Were any arrests made? The local police informed media that they are searching for the miscreants. Security has been beefed up in the area.

But this wasn’t the first such incident: Just two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express on 30 December 2022, stones were pelted on the glass panes of its doors. One window pane each in two coaches of Vande Bharat express were damaged before the train reached New Jalpaiguri station.

How did this lead to a political feud? The stone pelting incident led to a blame game between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC), with the former demanding an NIA investigation.

CCTV footage showed that the stone pelting took place in Malda district on 2 January and in the Kishanganj district of Bihar the next day.

“We should have faith in the administration. But some people in West Bengal are politicising this incident. This should stop,” said West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu, reported PTI.

What happened next? While FIRs have been lodged over the incidents, an awareness campaign has also been launched by joint teams of railway officials and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, to prevent recurrence of such incidents.