3 Railway Staffers Plotted Train Sabotage In Gujarat For Promotions & Day Offs, Arrested

Three railway employees were arrested for allegedly planning to derail a train near Kim railway station in Surat district, Gujarat, on Monday.

The trio reportedly carried out the sabotage themselves, risking lives in a bid for social media fame and promotion, while also wanting to ensure they could continue working night shifts, which allowed them a day off afterwards.

The trio—identified as Subhash Poddar (39), Manish Mistry (28), and Shubham Jaiswal (26)—are trackmen in the railways’ maintenance department.

Removed essential parts of the track

The three men also reportedly removed essential parts of the track. While inspecting the tracks between Kosamba and Kim stations, they alerted railway authorities at 5:30 am on Saturday about “miscreants” who had removed elastic clips and two fishplates from one section, attempting to derail a train.

“A probe began after a case for criminal conspiracy was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Kim police station against unidentified persons. We found that the trio, while on night patrol, had sent a video of the compromised track to their seniors in order to alert them. Railway officials told us a train passed on the route just before the trio noticed the tampering,” said Superintendent of Police Hotesh Joysar.

Joysar stated that the time between discovering the tampering and the passing train was too short for the trio to have removed the clips and plates. Upon checking their mobile phones, police found videos of the tampered tracks taken at intervals between 2:56 am and 4:57 am. Mistry had even deleted photos he had taken.

This evidence indicated that the photos and videos were recorded much earlier than when they reported the sabotage at 5:30 am. After intense questioning, the three confessed to their actions, Joysar added.

“They indulged in this act to ensure they would be felicitated and be deployed on night duty further, which would give them time to spend with the family during the day. It was Poddar who came up with this idea because their night duty for the monsoon was about to come to an end,” the SP said.

(With inputs from PTI)