KOCHI: The Indian Railways revoked the suspension of senior section engineer Raju Francis, who had faced action following the derailment of the Thiruvananthapuram-Mangaluru Express at Karukutty on Sunday.
In a chat with Express on Tuesday, Francis said he had warned his superiors that, besides Karukutty, there were 95 more dangerous spots in the Ernakulam-Shoranur railway stretch.
Raju had been suspended for his ‘failure to detect the damage’ but it was alleged that the suspension was intended to save the Railways’ skin.
Raju had also alleged that he was made a scapegoat. According to him, he had submitted reports about the potential danger at the aforesaid locations, including the one at Karukutty, to his superiors - senior divisional engineer (North) in Thiruvananthapuram and assistant divisional engineer in Thrissur thrice - in April, July and latest on August 11 - before the accident, but they chose to ignore it.
Raju had also said a Railways circular issued in March made it mandatory to report all the sites that had more than one crack at an interval of four metres.
“The officials told me that there is a shortage of rails and the work on the tracks will throw rail traffic in the region out of gear,” Francis had said.