New Delhi: A 20-year-old suspect was arrested after a 15-foot and an inch iron rod was found by the railway authorities on railway tracks between Khar and Santacruz Railway Stations. The rod was discovered after a local train collided with it at 8:35pm on Thursday.
After discovering the rod, the motorman stopped the train and alerted the station master. The Railway Protection Force (RPF), station master, and railway police swung into action, reached the spot immediately and collected the iron rod.
The Bandra Railway Police arrested the suspect on Saturday. He was identified as Abdul Kadir Samatbrez Shaikh, who resides in a Khar (West) slum. A major accident had been averted by the motorman, the police said.
He is a drug addict
According to a police officer, Shaikh is addicted to drugs, and he stole the iron rod to sell it and buy drugs. On the night of November 21, he took the iron rod from scrap. Someone may have spotted and scolded him, so he left the rod on the track and ran away. He was tracked with the help of CCTV footage.
Sources said that a Goregaon-CSTM slow-up harbour line local train (No. 90850) was going between Santacruz and Khar Road railway stations when it struck the iron rod near kilometre markers 16/7 and 16/8. Motorman Yogesh Kumar removed the rod from the track, alerted Churchgate control, and continued the journey at around 8:39pm.
Station Master Vishvendra Khandelwal and security personnel reached the spot to probe into the incident. They discovered a 15-foot-long iron rod with an inch diameter kept parallel to the tracks between the up and down lines. The rod was damaged on one side. A search of the surrounding areas showed no suspicious individuals. On November 22, RPF Sub-Inspector Sapna Sharma registered a complaint.
An FIR was filed by the Bandra Railway Police against an unknown person under Section 152 of the Railway Act, as well as Sections 125(a), 126(2), and 329(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The FIR mentioned that Sharma had informed the Khar Road Railway Station Master. However, because of poor coordination there was delay in registration of complaint with railway police.
There have been many sabotage attempts to derail trains in recent times. These incidents have been reported from across the country, including Ajmer, Kanpur and Surat.
