Four days after India’s seventh edition of Vande Bharat Express was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi stones were on Tuesday pelted at the country’s flagship train damaging some of its glass panes.
The train was coming from New Jalpaiguri and the incident took place between between Kumarganj and Samsi stations in Malda district of North Bengal.
Door panes of the C-13 coach of the Howrah-bound train were shattered leaving the passengers in panic, sources in the North East Frontier Railway said adding, the Division Railway Manager of Katihar Division under which the stretch falls had ordered an inquiry into the matter.
The incident took political colours with the BJP linking the Tuesday’s incident to Jai Shri Ram slogans shouted by saffron workers in front of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who too was present during the launch of the train at Howrah Station on December 30.
Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar wondered whether the stones were pelted at the train by the people who did not endorse the Jai Shri Ram slogan.
“Is it a fallout of the Jai Shri Ram slogans being shouted by BJP men in presence of the Chief Minister during the inauguration of the train on December 30 … if so they who responded in this manner should now prepare to listen such slogans for eternity,” he said.
State Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari who was addressing a rally at Gajol block in the same district attacked the Trinamool Congress saying the supporters of the party which were against Jai Shri Ram slogan and the party which has organised the stone pelting on the Vande Bharat Express should now get prepared to receive bull-dozers at their houses.
“The supporters of the party which does not want cherish Jai Shri Ram slogan should now get prepared because the bull-dozers will soon come to their houses … it started in UP and and then went to Assam and now it is almost on the verge of entering Bengal,” Adhikari said.
The TMC however strongly dismissed its involvement even as its spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said “let there be an inquiry and let the people who perpetrated this nuisance be punished … a train is a national property and no one has a right to damage it … but the TMC is in no way connected to it and those who are trying to give it a political colour should refrain from doing so.”
Meanwhile, a case under Section 154 of the Railways Act had been registered against unknown persons, Sabyasachi Dey, Chief Public Relations Officer of NF Railways said adding the Railway Protection Force had been deployed for investigation into the matter.
“A warning has been issued that any repeat incident will be dealt with strongly,” he said. NF Railway sources also said that the authorities at Samsi and Kumarganj stations have been asked to send a report to the Railway Ministry.