The police could actually hear the hammers banging on the steel tracks and voices happily reporting the “progress” of their “operation” to their seniors over the cell phone. But since the police had no clue about the exact location of the sabotage work being carried out despite the telephonic intercepts of the Maoists, it went on a wild goose chase before the Gyaneswari Express got derailed and collided with a goods train, killing 150 people.
“Fish plates gulo hoyegeche, ebar Pandrol clip gulo khulche (Fish plates have been removed, now they are working on the Pandrol clips...” one Maoist reported to another over the cell phone. The voice sounded jubilant with the sound of metal ringing out in the background.
If the state police had knowledge about the impending attack, why did not it act? The answer is that it did, but in the wrong location. “There was only a slight hint of the location in their conversation. The police had sent a team to the spot where they expected to find them. But the Maoists had divided themselves strategically into two groups, which were at two separate locations, and the police had got a whiff of just one,” revealed a source in the state home department. Soon after the calls were intercepted, forces were mobilised from the Jhargram side towards Indraboni — the spot where the police suspected the Maoists would carry out “some disruptive act” on Thursday night. Though there was no reported firing, circumstantial evidence suggests the forces missed the Naxals by a whisker.
The forces returned empty-handed thinking they had “foiled” an attack. They had no idea that they had been diverted from the actual spot of the sabotage operation.
By that time the Maoist squad working on the railway tracks near Sardiha was done with its work. The fish plates had been removed and the Pandrol clips taken out. The track was ready to derail the next train. The conversations taped by the police reveal that the operation was carried out within 30 minutes. The Maoists had left the spot just minutes before the Mumbai-bound Gyaneswari Express appeared.
What further substantiates the fact that the Maoists had a role in the train “accident” is their “post-operation” conversation, as taped by the state police. “Ponchash hoyeche... aro barchhe... haan haan... (The toll has touched 50... it will increase...),” one Maoist was heard reporting to his superior from the site of the accident hours after the train derailed Friday morning.
The police says it has “concrete evidence” that these voices are that of Bapi, Umakanta, Madan Mahato, Manoj Mahato and Kanu. According to police records, all of them are hardcore Maoists who work under the banner of the Maoist-backed tribal body People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA). Insiders revealed that the police is collecting the call details of these people to solidify the case against them. “A voice-analysing test, in which samples of their voices will be matched with the ones recorded on the tapes, will be carried out. This will serve as electronic evidence before the court to prove that the act of sabotage was a joint venture between the Maoists and the PCPA,” revealed a home department source. West Bengal DGP Bhupinder Singh chose not to comment on the “call-tapping issue”. “We are looking for Bapi, Umakanta etc etc...” was all he said when asked about the Maoists.
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PC rebuffs Mamata, says Maoists behind rail attack
New Delhi: Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Monday virtually rebuffed Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee by making it clear that all reports indicated that Friday’s Gyaneswari Express derailment was carried out by Maoists or organisations linked to them, reports our correspondent. Trinamul leaders had earlier blamed the CPI(M), not the Maoists, while Ms Banerjee hinted it was the work of her “political enemies”.