In a charged up speech in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that a recent rail tragedy in Kanpur that killed nearly 150 people was caused by elements from across the border.
A few people have been caught, but police found out that there was a conspiracy from across the border.
Contrary to the Prime Minister’s claim, however, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, Javed Ahmad said their investigation has yielded no such conclusions. Speaking to The Quint a month ago, Ahmad said:
Initially, we found no evidence of sabotage causing the train accident in Kanpur. Rather, there were complaints from several passengers that a lot of clattering was heard in a particular bogie. And these complaints were not attended to. In fact, the same bogie was the reason behind the derailment.
Bihar police had earlier declared that it has arrested three criminals who allegedly confessed to their role in planting a cooker bomb that caused the derailment.
Ahmad also said that the sabotage theory is being probed. He added that the sabotage claim made by Bihar police needs to be corroborated with evidence. No such evidence has so far been produced.
Besides the UP DGP, a senior official in the safety department of the railways also junked the Bihar cops’ seemingly dodgy claim. The official told The Quint:
The prima facie cause of the Kanpur accident was a rail fracture, there has been no evidence of sabotage in the two months since it happened. This recent development (sabotage claim) seems like an effort by the BJP to use the central subject of terrorism, and to bring in central agencies like the NIA and the CBI to investigate the sabotage theory weeks before the elections in UP.
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