Two days after recovery of a large number of explosive materials in Gondwana Express enroute to Hazrat Nizamuddin from Jabalpur, a senior officer of Madhya Pradesh GRP on Tuesday played down the incident and said the incident could be a ‘mischief’ but they were probing it from all angles.
Superintendent of Railway Police, Jabalpur, AK Pandey said that the explosive was not active. “Somebody played a mischief by putting the dud explosive in the berth. From examination, it was found that explosive would not have caused an explosion as it was not active,” he added.
“It appears that somebody wanted to create sensation and panic,” he said, adding, investigation into the recovery was on but the Government Railway Police (GRP) could not take any chances in the case.
GRP had quizzed a couple and a man who alighted the train at Katni and Sagar station respectively. They were let off after interrogation as the GRP was convinced that they were innocent. On Sunday, nine pyro bombs, explosives, batteries, copper wires and some electronic devices were recovered underneath a berth in Sleeper coach no. 8 of Gondwana Express around 3.20 pm at Sihora, just 20 minutes after it chugged off from Jabalpur to Hazrat Nizamuddin.
The explosives were disposed off by bomb disposal squad near a lake at Sihora. After the train left Sihora, Sagar GRP again received information that two more bombs were still in the train.
The train was stopped at Malikedhi station and its S-7, 8 and 9 coaches were thoroughly searched for three hours from 8.45 pm to 11.45 pm but no suspicious object was found. later, the train left and reached its destination on Monday.