Lack of footage bedevils probe into Diva sabotage'

Mumbai: The Government Railway Police (GRP) is finding it difficult to recover concrete evidence in the suspected Diva sabotage case, due to unavailable CCTV footage and witnesses. Officials said that as a result, they are not able to rule out or prove the sabotage angle.

The GRP has questioned more than 40 people till now, including locals, the Janshatabdi Express loco-pilot who had seen the 400 kg rail piece on the track on January 24 and prevented a catastrophe. It was after this that the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had begun its independent investigation, suspecting a sabotage/terror angle to the incident.

A Railway Police Force (RPF) official said, “The terror angle seems to be fizzling out because there is no evidence of such a plan being hatched. But Kanpur accident is the genesis of these theories being floated around the Diva rail piece.” He added, “The railway is making sure that all the angles are eliminated before shutting the case. In fact the case might as well go unsolved.”

GRP commissioner, Nitesh Kaushik admitted that the lack of evidence is making the case difficult to pin down. He said, “We have to keep probing all angles but the fact is that this has become a complex case as the section in which the incident has taken place falls between stations and there is no CCTV to guide us.” He further added, “This along with the fact that we are unable to find concrete witnesses to the incident is making investigation a little difficult, we have to have evidence before we arrest anyone.”