ISI hand suspected in Kanpur train tragedy

Tribune News Service & PTI

Patna, January 17

The role of ISI in the Kanpur derailment was being suspected after the Bihar Police today arrested three persons who they claimed were working for the Pakistani intelligence agency to target the Railways.

The ISI link to the November 20 train disaster, in which 150 persons were killed, was being suspected after the interrogation of the trio, the police said.

During interrogation, the three arrested persons provided some “leads” about the Indore-Patna Express derailment in Kanpur, DSP Jitendra Rana said. He said the ATS and central agencies had been apprised of it for comprehensive investigation.

Moti Paswan, Uma Shankar Patel and Mukesh Yadav were arrested from the Adapur police station area and they allegedly confessed to having worked for a Nepalese contact suspected to be linked to the ISI to target the Railways, Rana said.

The three are “professional criminals” involved in more than 12 criminal cases. They were paid Rs 3 lakh by a Nepali man Brajesh Giri, who allegedly has links with Shamsul Hoda of Dubai who has connections with the ISI, the SP said.

The money was paid to them to plant a bomb on rail tracks at Ghorasan in East Champaran, bordering Nepal, on October 1 last year, Rana said. “Fortunately, the bomb was detected with the help of villagers at Ghorasan and defused which prevented the sinister designs of the terror elements,” Rana said.

The arrest of the trio came in course of investigation in the murder of two persons of East Champaran district in Nepal on December 28 for failing to successfully trigger bomb on the rail track at Ghorasan, he said.