Gyaneshwari train derailment accused wants to confess

KOLKATA - Pro-Maoist activist Bapi Mahato, a prime accused in last month’s Gyaneshwari Express derailment, Monday told a city court that he wanted to make a confessional statement before a magistrate on his role in the sabotage that killed 148 people.

Mahato was brought before the designated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court by the investigative agency sleuths who feared that the Jhargram court in West Midnapore district could be unsafe because of the Maoist menace.

Mahato told the judge that he wanted to make a confessional statement on the part played by him in the derailment of the train May 28.

The judge ordered that Mahato be remanded to judicial custody for a day and produced before the court Tuesday.

Mahato’s secret statement would be recorded if he still wanted to make a confession.

Mahato was nabbed from a guest house at Adityapur, six km from Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand’s Saraikela-Kharswan district by a joint team of the West Bengal and Jharkhand police June 20.

A prominent leader of the militant wing of tribal body Peoples’ Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), Mahato was the main organizer of the tribal group’s Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia in the Guimara-Lalgeria panchayat area.

The CBI had earlier declared a reward of Rs.1 lakh for any information about Mahato 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.

So far seven people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Bholanath Mahato, one of those arrested, was produced in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Jhargram. He was remanded to four days in judicial custody.

The Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailed between Sardiha and Khemasuli stations after Leftwing rebels cut open the pandrol clips used to fix the rail to the sleeper.

A freight train approaching from the opposite direction then rammed into five derailed coaches, resulting in the high casualties.

Following the incident, the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) initiated an inquiry, but the central government later asked the CBI to probe the matter following a demand from Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

While the CID nabbed two people - Khagen Mahato and Samir Mahato - the CBI had arrested five others.