KANPUR RAIL MISHAP A SABOTAGE?

NEWDELHI: A suspect in last year’s train derailment case in Bihar recorded conversations with his Nepal-based handler, leaving clues that suggest a possible sabotage angle to Kanpur train accident that claimed 150 lives on November 20 last year, NIA probe has revealed.

The suspect, Umashankar Patel from Bihar, decided to record the conversation after his Nepal-based handler Brij Kishore Giri asked him to return the money following his failure to carry out an explosion through improvised explosive device (IED) planted on train tracks in Bihar’s Ghorasahan on September 30 last year.

Giri hired another set of criminals to plant an IED at Nakardei in the same state on December 2. This time the IED exploded but failed to cause any damage. Investigators say the conversation between Patel and Giri took place between the Kanpur train derailment and Nakardei incident.

Both Patel and Giri were arrested in a multi-agency swoop earlier this year in Nepal and Bihar for their involvement in two incidents of planting of IEDs on train tracks.

“Kanpur wala keel pin-un nikal dehni, bujhela, keela khunta nikal diya ... Dekho unka kaam ho gaya...un log ka aadmi kar diya ... Khali keela khunta nikal diya, ho gaya ... tum se toh woh bhi nahi ho raha (In Kanpur, screws and pins were taken out, understood, see their work was done. Their men managed to do it by taking out pins and screws ... You have not been able to do even that),” Giri is heard telling Patel after the Kanpur accident, according to NIA.

Investigators found the recording on Patel’s phone. They claimed that forensic analysis and witness accounts confirmed that the voices in the conversation were indeed those of Patel and Giri.

“The conversation between Giri and Patel suggests the involvement of another group of people in the Kanpur derailment. And if the claim made by Giri is true, we need to find those people. It is also possible that Giri might have just boasted to tell Patel that he is just useless,” a senior NIA official said on the condition of anonymity.

RECORDED CONVERSATION BETWEEN A SUSPECT IN BIHAR DERAILMENT AND HIS HANDLER POINTS TO FOUL PLAY, SAYS NIA