Slums and houses along railway tracks have come on the radar of UP police and other agencies probing into the missing pandrol clips of the track between Badhshahnagar and Daliganj railway crossing.
Investigators of Government Railway Police (GRP), Railway Protection Force, Lucknow police and UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) suspected that the people involved in removing the clips must have taken shelter or stay in these slums/houses.
Moreover, the investigators so far had not found any terror link behind the damage caused to the railway track. They suspected it was a handiwork of people involved in stealing railway properties or a result of internal conflict of railway employees.
The teams of four police and railway agencies were working on the case with each other’s coordination.
{{/usCountry}}The teams of four police and railway agencies were working on the case with each other’s coordination.
{{/usCountry}}“We have got some specific inputs about people involved in causing damage to the railway tracks and the case will be cracked soon,” said a GRP official supervising the probe.
A source said the investigators had prepared a list of at least 20 suspects, including some railway employees, slum dwellers and people staying alongside railway tracks. “The movement and location of each suspect on Saturday-Sunday intervening night is being examined closely,” he added.
He said a team of Mahanagar police station, where an FIR regarding missing pandrol clips was lodged, also summoned some railway employees and cross-examined them. Two railway employees, who spotted the damage first and a woman eyewitness, who spotted some people hammering the railway track around 1.30am on Saturday-Sunday night, were examined, added the source.
Around 4.25 am on Sunday, railway patrol men, Shiv Shankar and Sanjay discovered that the clips were missing between Badshah Nagar and Daliganj stations in Lucknow.
The timely detection of at least 71 missing pandrol clips of the track shortly before Kaifiyat Express train was scheduled to cross averted a major tragedy.
Later, UP DGP Sulkhan Singh asked ATS officials to assist the investigation, suspecting terror link in the incident.