VISHAKAPATNAM: A 5-member team of National Investigation Agency (NIA), accompanied by several senior officers from Andhra Pradesh, visited the Hirakhand Express mishap site at Kuneru in Vizianagaram district on Monday to probe the sabotage angle in the case.
The NIA and CID will conduct a joint probe into the incident. A series of train mishaps in the country in recent days and the train derailment, suspected to be a sabotage, at Kanpur in which around 130 passengers were killed led the NIA team to fly down from New Delhi to investigate whether there could be any similar angle to the Hirakhand train derailment.
After the mishap, Divisional Railway Manager of East Coast Railway Chandralekha Mukherjee told Express that two trains had passed the track at around 9 pm and 10.45 pm. In between, linemen inspected the track too, but the accident occurred around 11.20 pm, hinting at a possible sabotage. A team of CID officials including additional DG Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, inspector general of police Amit Garg and a few other officers accompanied the NIA team.
The security agencies inspected the tracks at Kuneru railway station and also the portion where the railway officials found 10 to 15 inches of the track broken. Sources said that the team had clicked pictures of the tracks and spoke to the railway officials and a few staffers at Kuneru railway station. It is learnt that though officials didn’t rule out the possibilities of sabotage, they expressed that weak tracks could also have led to the accident.
Sources said that the officials also contacted the railway staff of stations which the train had passed before it reached Kuneru to ascertain whether there were any cracks or fractures on the rail lines or whether it was the fault from the driver.
Officials told media that they couldn’t ascertain the reasons till the investigation was complete. Meanwhile, a team led by Commissioner Railway Safety (South Central Circle) Ram Kripal also visited the site to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the derailment. He also interacted with the patients undergoing treatment at hospitals at Parvathipuram.