Seventh arrest in Gyaneshwari Express derailment case

KOLKATA - A pro-Maoist activist was arrested from Khemashuli in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district and another detained for questioning in the May 28 Gyaneshwari train accident, police said Thursday. This is the seventh arrest in the case.

Amiya Mahato, an active member of the tribal body Peoples’ Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) in Manikpara village near Jhargram in the district, was arrested Wednesday night by a joint investigating team comprising sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state police.

The JIT members also detained Tapan Mahato for his alleged involvement in the incident. He is being interrogated, a police official said.

Amiya Mahato was produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate in Jhargram Thursday and remanded in CBI custody for 10 days, said CBI lawyer Partha Tapaswi.

Tapaswi said CBI also also brought Hiralal Mahato, arrested earlier for his alleged involvement in the Gyaneshwari case, before the Jhargram court. Hiralal got a 14-day judicial remand.

“After examining the documents collected from his school, the CBI officers found that Hiralal was a juvenile while committing the crime. Though he is now an adult, the CBI treated Hiralal as a juvenile in the case. So he was remanded in judicial custody,” said CBI’s Additional Director General (Media and Communications) Harsh Bhal.

The CBI officials also recovered equipment used to remove pandrol clips from the tracks May 28.

A senior officer of the joint investigation team said: “Bapi Mahato tipped us off about Amiya Mahato, who arranged for the equipment for carrying out the sabotage on the railway tracks”.

“During interrogation, Bapi gave the address of Amiya and after conducting raids in his house at Koimashuli near Jhargram, he was arrested,” said the officer.

“During interrogation, Amiya confessed his involvement in the crime and gave a disclosure statement. Later a raid was conducted in his house and a good number of tools used by railway gangmen were recovered from there,” said Harsh Bhal.

The CBI took Bapi to his home in Rasua village, from where some equipment were recovered as well. This was the first important seizure by the CBI, crucial to prove the involvement of the men in custody, CBI sources said.

The agency also picked up Tapan Mahato - a close associate of Bapi, with whom the latter had hatched the plot June 27.

The CBI officers interrogating Bapi, one of the prime accused in the case, said: “The entire plan was chalked out by Bapi and his other associates, who were also active members of the PCAPA’s militant wing in the Manikpara area, on the instruction of top Maoist cadres”.

“The two other prime accused in the case may have been sheltered by the Maoists, so we have requested the centre to deploy six companies of CoBRA force to help us during raids in the forested areas of West Midnapore,” the officer said.

The CBI had announced a Rs.1 lakh reward each for information leading to the arrest of Bapi, and two other prime accused - Umakant Mahato of Banksole village and Asit Mahato of Krishnanagar village in West Midnapore district. Umakant and Asit are still at large.