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PM did not name anyone in Kanpur train accident: Rajnath
The home minister said Modi had not taken any names and asked the house to wait for the NIA investigation to get over in the case.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not name anyone in the conspiracy behind the Kanpur train accident, which is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
He was responding to Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s remarks in Rajya Sabha, quoting the PM saying at a rally in Gonda that the accident was a conspiracy “from across the border”.
A Nepalese citizen, a key accused in the Kanpur train derailment case and suspected of having links with the ISI and mob boss Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested in Kathmandu after being deported from Dubai.
The derailment of the Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur Dehat on November 21 last year killed more than 140 people.
The home minister said Modi had not taken any names and asked the house to wait for the NIA investigation to get over.
Referring to the PM’s statement, Digvijay Singh said it seems the NIA was briefing him, but the home minister was unaware.
The minister said the PM had not named anyone, but such reports appeared in newspapers. Singh also added that there have been several terror attacks in India, which were sponsored by Pakistan.
Replying to JDU leader Sharad Yadav’s question on why the government had shut the door on dialogue with Pakistan, Rajnath said New Delhi is ready for talks, provided Islamabad is ready to pull the plug on state-sponsored terrorism
“This was a policy followed by the previous government as well,” he said.
The home minister also asserted that the number of terror attacks and ceasefire violations along the international border and the line of control have come down after India conducted surgical strikes at terror launch pads across the LoC.
He said the number of terror attacks had come down from 110 to 87 after the surgical strikes as have the casualties of civilians as well as security forces.
