On Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh police ADG addressed the derailment of the Utkal Express and confirmed there are no links to it being a terror attack. The derailment of the train in Khatauli claimed the lives of 22 people.
ADG, Anand Kumar said, “The ATS is camping there since yesterday. As per investigations done till now, there is no concrete evidence pointing to the role of any terror outfit’s involvement in it.”
The ADG added, “Chances are that the derailment may have occurred due to some other or technical reasons.”
The railways took strict action against the incident that mostly seems to be due to negligence. They sent three high ranking officials on leave and suspended four.
The train was traveling from Puri in Odisha to Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The train had 23 coaches out of which 13 were derailed at Katauli in UP.
Six of the coaches were traveling at a speed of 100 kmph ended up getting severely damaged and one coach crashed into a house.
The incident led to 23 dead and 156 people getting injured among which multiple people are in a serious condition.
Member of the Railway Board, Mohammad Jamshed explained, “Prime facie, it seems maintenance work was being carried out on the tracks…. Some maintenance work was going on, which might have caused the derailment of Utkal Express.”
He further added, “Prima facie, the information is that there is divisional responsibility involved if work was being done without seeking permission. By this evening we will know if any of our staff was responsible for this.”
