Mathura, Uttar Pradesh:
The Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case against "unknown persons" after it emerged that the Mewar Express had come to a sudden halt because the emergency chain was pulled, following which the Goa Express rammed into it, killing 22 people.
The case has been registered under sections 223 (escape from confinement due to negligence of a public servant) and 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the IPC, SSP (Mathura) B D Paulson said.
In Kota (Rajasthan), Additional Superintendent of Police, Bhupendra Sahu, refused to comment on whether an escape attempt by a criminal on the train led to the accident but added, "All the three officials involved in the incident have been suspended and an inquiry has been ordered."
The office of Senior Superintendent of Police, Mathura City, had earlier said it has received two separate complaints -- one relating to the train accident and the other being that of an accused escaping from custody of Rajasthan policemen.
It is alleged that Munna Sazid, an accused in a robbery case, was being taken from Kota to the national capital by the Delhi-bound Mewar Express for a hearing in a Tees Hazari court.
He was being accompanied by three police constables of Rajasthan Police -- Ashok Kumar, Veerendra and Bahadur. At the Mathura station, Sazid asked for permission to go to toilet.
As soon as the train started gaining speed, he pushed one of the constables and jumped from the train prompting the police officials to pull the chain to bring it to halt, according to the complaint.
Maintaining that the issue of who pulled the chain to stop the train was yet to be established, Paulson said the three Kota constables had come to his office at around 1500 hrs to lodge an FIR on the escape of the criminal, while the accident had occurred in the wee hours on Wednesday.
The constables told the SSP that Sazid escaped in the confusion after the accident. On the issue of delay in registration of the complaint, they said that they could not do so earlier as the entire staff was busy at the accident site.
But, the constables could not explain how the criminal, who was handcuffed and tied with a rope, managed to free himself and escape, police said.
Police said they were probing if Sazid's escape may have led to chain pulling that brought Mewar Express to a sudden halt.