Policemen show dismantled objects at the guard room of a railway crossing caused by protesting agitators, at Shivala in Amritsar
Claiming his innocence in the horrific tragedy which killed 62 people on the night of Dusshera in Amritsar on Friday, the driver of the 'killer' train has given a written statement in his defence. Arvind Kumar, who was driving the train which crushed people watching burning of Ravana effigy, claimed that he had honked at the crowd from 300 metres but people could not hear it over the loud sounds of the crackers.
In the letter, the driver said that he had applied emergency brakes of the train, but they failed to stop the train before it hit the crowd.
Kumar claimed that when the train slowed down to stop, gathered crowd started pelting stones on the train. "With an eye on the safety of the passengers of the train I had to keep driving and take the train to ASR station (Amritsar)." He said he had informed his superiors about the situation immediately.
Letter written by the train driver
However, the locals have come out hard against the driver's statement.
"I was at the spot. Leave alone stopping, the train did not even slow down. It seemed as if the driver wanted to mow us down. The train passed us in a matter of seconds.
"Is it logically possible for us to pelt stones at the train when so many people were dead and injured around us? Is it possible for us to get our bearings after such an incident and pelt stones at a speeding train? The driver is lying," Shailender Singh Shally, Councillor, Ward Number 46, Amritsar, said.
"He did not even slow down, let alone almost stopping. The train was in such speed that the accident happened in split seconds. There are hundreds of videos that show how fast the train went. There was no chance of us reacting, leave alone pelt stones. All we could hear around us was people screaming and crying," Paramjeet Singh, another onlooker, said.
The maximum speed of the train, which was a Diesel Electrical Multiple Unit (DEMU) is 96 kmph, once brakes are applied, this kind of train stops completely in about 300 metres if empty, and in 600 metres if full, officials said.
The last recorded speed of the train, according to Divisional Railway Manager (Ferozpur) Vivek Kumar, was 68kmph.
"As the train passed, I heard people screaming and shouting. There was no stone pelting. I don't understand why the driver would make up such a thing. Will people who are seeing their loved ones lying in pools of blood leave them and pick up stones to hit the train?
"Anyway, the speed of the train was such that even if people wanted to pelt stones, by the time they collected them, the train would have disappeared from sight. He is lying," Ajay Goenka, who was present at the spot, said.
Local police too corroborated the claims of the eyewitnesses and said that not just the train was travelling at a high speed, there were no reports of stone pelting at the site of the incident on October 19.
"As far as I know, there has been no stone pelting at the spot of the accident when the train passed," Sukhminder Singh, SHO of Mohkampura police station under whose jurisdiction the area falls, told PTI.
Senior Railway officials were not available for comment on the matter officially.
Sidhu questions clean chit to driver within a day
Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu Sunday targeted the Indian Railways, raising several questions about its functioning and asked how a "clean chit" was given to the loco-pilot of the train, which mowed down at least 59 people watching a Dussehra event in Amritsar, in "one day".
The statement from Sidhu, whose wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu was the chief guest at the event at Joda Phatak on Friday evening, came a day after Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said there was no negligence on part of the railways.
The railways has said it was not informed by the organisers or the local administration that a Dussehra event was being organised near the tracks. It said Saturday the tragedy was a case of trespassing and ruled out any probe.
"What sort of commission did you set up that you gave a clean chit to him (loco-pilot) in one day. Either the driver was permanent or he was engaged for one day. Why do not you say?" said Sidhu.
"When you stop (the train) for cow, you even get an FIR registered if someone is found sitting on a track. And you ran over...people and you did not stop. And what was the speed of train? It was more than 100 km per hour… Zip it goes," he claimed.
Opposition parties have sought action against those who allowed the event near the railway tracks. The Akali Dal has demanded Sidhu's dismissal from Punjab's Congress government, alleging his wife presided over an "unauthorised" event.
The state government has ordered a magisterial probe into the circumstances that led to accident.
