NIA, CID SLEUTHS VISIT KONERU MISHAP SPOT

The National Investigation Agency visited the Hirakhand Express mishap site here on Monday and quizzed railway engineers to explore all angles, including sabotage. The CID and a forensic team from Andhra Pradesh have also started a probe

The NIA asked the railway engineer about how the train derailed and whether they had found the 25-cm piece of rail mising after derailment.

The National Investigation Agency team said if the track got fractured when the train ran over it, the broken piece would have been found near the spot. But, the section engineer said no fractured piece of track was found.

The fracture was seen on rails over which the train did not pass. triggering doubts.

The engineer could not explain the precise reason for the fracture on the other bar.

The section engineer told it could be due to the weight of the train, hammering or other reasons.

With the Railway suspecting sabotage they explored all angles to see if the derailment was a subversive act. The NIA is currently probing the role of ISI in the IndorePatna mishap last year.

A CID team will also probe all possible angles responsible for the mishap.

The CID team also visited the spot to ascertain the reason behind the mishap. Though the team had doubts about the sabotage theory, they said they would look into it as the railways had suspected it.

The versions of the locopilot and the railway authorities were a bit conflicting, the team said.

The CID will form five teams to probe the incident. It will seek the help of an explosive detection team. “We will look into all the physics and chemistry based theories behind rail track fractures,” a member of the team said.