NIA to probe IED on rail track in Bihar, forms team

The Union Home Ministry has handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) the probe into the seizure of an improvised explosive device near a rail track in Bihar's Ghorasahan on October 1, 2016. The agency has since formed an investigation team led by an Inspector General-rank officer.

"We received the order on Wednesday to probe the Ghorasahan incident. The case will be investigated by an NIA team led by an Inspector General-rank officer. Some team members have reached Bihar today (Thursday) while some will go later," an NIA officer told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

The ministry's move came days after the Bihar Police arrested three suspected criminals -- Moti Paswan, Uma Shankar Patel and Mukesh Yadav -- in connection with the case and claimed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had conspired to carry out a spate of train derailments in India.

During interrogation, the Bihar Police said, the three accused confessed to receiving Rs 3 lakh from Nepal citizen Brajesh Giri, who is allegedly connected with the ISI, for planting the bomb on rail tracks at Ghorasahan in East Champaran district on October 1 to cause an accident. The tragedy was, however, averted.

The police said Paswan revealed during interogation that the money was routed through ISI's Dubai-based agent Shamshul Huda to carry out the derailments. Huda is a known operative of fake Indian currency and has a network in Nepal.

The Bihar Police had accused Paswan and his accomplices of the Indore-Patna Express derailment on November 20 last year near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, in which over 100 passengers died.

The NIA official said the agency hoped to probe the Kanpur train derailment case as well as the derailment of the Hirakhand Express on January 22, 2017, near Kuneru station in Andhra Pradesh, which claimed at least 41 lives.

--IANS

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