New Delhi, July 29: The derailment of the Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express in West Bengal that killed 148 people was due to suspected sabotage, Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa told the Lok Sabha Thursday.
"The prima facie cause of derailment of 2102 Up (Howrah-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus) Gyaneshwari Express was suspected to be sabotage on the track by the miscreants," Muniappa said in a written reply to a question on the cause of derailment.
The Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailed after the suspected sabotage and was hit by a freight train near Jhargram in West Midnapore district on May 28, killing 148 people.
Muniappa told the Lok Sabha that in view of the gravity of the accident, the matter has been entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing a train accident for the first time.
The minister said the railway authorities had also received intelligence inputs about the threat by certain outfits for observing a "Black Week" May 28-June 2.
"In view of these considerations and looking at the gravity of the accident in which scores of innocent lives were lost, the ministry of railways had requested for investigation of the criminal angle involved into the above accident by the CBI," said Muniappa.