A man arrested on suspicion of involvement in sabotage of trains in the country admitted that he conducted recce to derail trains in January this year, police said. The arrested man, Shivam Soni, did some recce at Dalsinghsarai station under Samastipur division of East Central Railway, but abandoned the plan for some reason, Begusarai Superintendent of Police Ranjit Kumar Mishra said.
Soni, who was remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody by a local court, also provided other information which were being authenticated, officials said. The accused was being interrogated by state police, ATS, Special Branch, Intelligence Bureau of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and GRP interrogated him to elicit details of plan to cause derailment of trains on behalf of Pakistan’s ISI.
Details of the SIM cards of his mobile phones were being perused to gather more information, officials said.Soni, who was carrying railway map and four mobile phones, was arrested on Tuesday from Manjhaul Bazar locality under Cheriabariarpur police station of Begusarai district.
Originally a resident of Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, he was living in Cheriabariarpur police station area after marrying a local girl. His wife told security personnel that he used to regularly converse with two people. She, however, could not give details of conversion or name of the two persons.
Recent arrest of three persons having links with ISI operative Shamsul Hoda brought to light the sabotage angle of train accidents including the one involving Indore Patna Express in November last year in which 150 passengers were killed.