BENGALURU: A mysterious metal object, suspected to be a country-made grenade, was found next to the tracks of platform number one at the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) Station on Friday morning. The discovery sent the railway police into a tizzy even as tension and panic gripped passengers and visitors to the city’s main railway station.
The ‘grenade’ was found to be without explosives, but was enough to cause panic among passengers. Additionally, a CCTV malfunction on the Bengaluru-Patna Sanghamitra Express, led to a beeping sound emanating, fuelling more fear. Passengers waiting for the trains scheduled 9 am departure, were evacuated for the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to conduct a thorough search of the train and platforms 1 and 2 — which delayed the train’s departure by two hours and ten minutes.
A statement from the South Western Railways (SWR) said, “Railway Security Control reported at 8.45 am that a ‘hand grenade’ was found near trolley path on PF no 1. RPF immediately swung into action. The area was cordoned off and Divisional Security Commissioner led a team of Railway Security force to thoroughly search the entire premises including trains.
Train movement except of PF no 1 and 2 was normal….” First noticed by a railway employee, the grenade like object led to the employee calling the RPF, who rushed with sandbags and placed them around the object to stifle the effects of a possible explosion.The ‘grenade’ was handed over to Bomb Disposal Squad at 9.55 am after which normal operations resumed. Later tests revealed that there were no explosives inside. However, intensive checks were instituted for the rest of the day, the South Western Railway said.
Alok Mohan, Additional Director General of Police (Railways) said: “The train has CCTV cameras but they are not working. So special teams have been formed to look into the case and the city police have also joined in the investigations.”However, another senior police officer said, “Preliminary investigations revealed that since there are movements of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and military personnel in trains regularly, someone might have carried it along with them and it (the grenade-like object) might have fallen down accidentally.”