Saying that the main objective was to send a shockwave, Mahato has told the joint investigation team that the attack was planned as retaliation against the alleged torture of villagers by security forces. A senior Maoist leader of the Lalgarh squad is reported to have said at a meeting prior to the Jnaneswari disaster on May 28 that they wanted maximum casualties.

Earlier, Mahato had blamed the Jnaneswari derailment on a communication gap, saying that their target was the goods train.

But his confession now points to a deliberate act. According to officials, Mahato said two private contractors working with the Railways were roped in for the purpose. About 15 gangmen working under the contractors were engaged to remove the pandrol clips from both the “Up” and “Down” tracks.

“The private contractors and their labourers, who had been working for the Railways for many years, knew the timings of the Jnaneswari Express (a tri-weekly train) and the goods train. The job was done to ensure that the derailed coaches of the passenger train collided with the goods train,” said JIT officials. “The pandrol clips were removed in such a way that collision was unavoidable, resulting in heavy casualties,” they added.

“If Bapi had targeted the goods train only, he and his gang could have removed the pandrol clips of one track. But they removed the clips of both the tracks. The gangmen who executed the sabotage were well aware of the alignments of the clips and the track. They knew on which side the train would get derailed and what would be the consequence,” said Bhupinder Singh, DGP.

Singh said Mahato has named the gangmen and the contractors, who are residents of Muraboni and Lalgeria villages in Manikpara area, where the PCAPA leader also lived. “Before the sabotage, Mahato received a letter from the Maoists saying that since nothing was happening in his area, the security forces had a free run there. He has named some very senior Maoist leaders,” said Singh.

Mahato also corroborated The Indian Express report that he was abducted by a Maoist gang on June 4 and taken to a camp in Belpahari, where he was kept in captivity for several days. He managed to escape to Jharkhand, where he made his way to Jamshedpur, from where he was arrested on Sunday.

Suspension of train services in night to continue till confident of security: Rlys
A senior railway official has said that the the suspension of night-running of trains in Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway in the wake of Jnaneshawari train accident would continue till the railways are confident of security.

“Once we are confident enough, we will immediately start running of trains during night hours,” said Railway Board Chairman Vivek Sahai. Running of trains at night was suspended in the division immediately after the May 28 mishap. Sahai said the railways were doing a regular assessment of the prevailing situation in the area in the wake of the train accident near Jhargram in West Midnapore district of West Bengal and are being provided with intelligence inputs on a daily basis.