Flashback: Like Odisha, Huge Sabotage Claims Were Made On 2016 Kanpur Train Accident- What Came Out?

In February, 2017, PM Narendra Modi at a public meeting in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh said that the Kanpur train accident was a terror attack and the 'conspiracy' to kill over 140 people was made from across the border.

Amid the claims of sabotage behind the triple train accident in Odisha's Balasore on Friday that claimed 278 lives, the Central Bureau Of Investigation on Tuesday began its investigation. The CBI started its investigation by filing an FIR under IPC sections 337, 338, 304A (causing death by negligence) and 34 (common intention), and sections 153 (unlawful and negligent action endangering lives of Railway passengers), 154 and 175 (endangering lives) of the Railways Act. The doubts of criminal negligence are not new to train tragedies in India, sabotage was suspected behind the Kanpur train accident of 2016 as well. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government handed over the investigation of the accident to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The railways ministry asked then Home Minister Rajnath Singh for an NIA probe and a case was filed. But the NIA probe never found proof to support it and the cases were never chargesheeted.

Why Sabotage Is Suspected In Balasore Train Accident?

The Ministry of Railways also asked the CBI to join the case after a preliminary inquiry suggested possible interference with the electronic interlocking system that tracks the trains, and officials suspected someone deliberately caused the accident on Friday.

Hours after the train mishap, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that they have identified the people responsible for the accident and also discovered a root cause behind it. “The point machine’s setting was altered. The probe report will reveal how and why it happened,” Vaishnaw said.

“The root cause for the terrible incident has been found… I do not want to give more details. Wait for the report. I will just say that the main reason and the people who did the crime have been found,” Vaishnaw further added.

What Happened To Sabotage Claim In Kanpur Train Accident?

On February 25 2017, PM Modi at a public meeting in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh said that the Kanpur train accident on November 20, 2016, was a terror attack. He said the accident killed hundreds and the “plot” was made from across the border. The PM urged that people shouldn’t vote for those who might help terrorists from across the border and make Gonda, and India, unsafe.

On November 20, some coaches of the Indore-Rajendranagar Express going to Patna derailed in Pukhrayan, killing 148 people. At first, the accidents were blamed on track fractures and wagon defects.

The then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who had also organised, hinted that there was “sabotage” in the recent train accidents. But in its initial report, the Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) found no sign of sabotage in the November 20 accident.

On March 1, 2017, six days after PM Modi claimed sabotage in the Kanpur tragedy, the then Uttar Pradesh Railway Police chief said that there was no sabotage in the Indore-Patna Express derailment incident near Kanpur, The Hindu reported.

Uttar Pradesh Police’s Director General of Railways, Gopal Gupta, said the derailment near Kanpur was due to the “weariness of railway tracks”.

The investigation by a team of IIT Kanpur engineers found that there was no evidence of sabotage on the railway tracks, nor were any explosive traces found on the samples collected from the accident spot.