NABIPUR, NOV 26: Two coaches of the Sayajinagari Express, which was extended up to Gandhidham and rechristened as Bandra-Gandhidham Express with effect from November 23, were completely burnt when some angry commuters from Vadodara torched it near Nabipur station in Bharuch district on Saturday morning. The train was cancelled after it reached Bharuch. The empty train was sent to Mumbai at 5pm. The protestors were against renaming of the train and its extension up to Gandhidham in Kutch.However, no loss of life or injury to any of the passengers in the two coaches were reported as the driver immediately stopped the train after the guard informed him about the smoke coming out from the two coaches. ``The entire train would have been destroyed, had the guard not informed the driver about the fire on time,'' said A D Nayak, station superintendent of Nabipur station.Another reason for the fire not spreading beyond the two coaches was its slow running due to damage caused to its hosepipes by passengers protesting at Palej station, according to Nayak. Nayak said the train passed the Nabipur station at 11 am way beyond its scheduled time due to blockade of railway tracks at Vadodara and Palej stations by protestors.``I saw smoke rising from one of the coaches when the train moved out of Nabipur station,'' Nayak said. He informed the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) personnel who rushed fire tenders and put out the fire. The IOC has a big store near Nabipur.Two Government Railway Police personnel had been deployed in all the coaches following a threat of disruption by daily commuters of Vadodara as also the local BJP men.When questioned about the lapse on the part of GRP, DSP GRP Ashok Kumar Munia said the policemen had got down to disperse the protesters at Palej station but could not board their respective compartments when the train began moving. As the two compartments remained without policemen it gave a chance to miscreants to torch it.As many as 17 suspects, including two women, one of them a teacher in a private school in Surat, were arrested by the GRP and a case under Section 335 of IPC, Sections 151 and 174 of Indian Railways Act and Damage to Public Property Act was registered against them in the Bharuch Government Railway Police Station. All the arrested are Monthly Seasonal Ticket (MST) holders.Those arrested, however, denied their involvement in the case. ``We helped the police in removing the burnt bogies,'' said Hitesh Raj and Dinesh Parmar. ``We were detained simply because we are MST who are being suspected to be behind the act,'' said Auresh Patel and Sunil Kotwal. Varshaben Patel, who teaches in Takshila School in Surat, said she was arrested as she had raised slogans against extension of the train at Vadodara and Palej stations. All the arrested persons said that though they were not in the coaches which were put on fire but were still arrested.Movement of trains between Ahmedababd and Mumbai remained affected for five hours. The trains that ran late were Shatabdi Express, Gujarat Express, Howrah Express, Navjivan Express, Deluxe Express and Saurtashtra Express, a senior railway official at Bharuch said.He said arrangements had also been made to refund money to Shatabdi and Bandra-Gandhidham Express passengers. Movements of trains became normal after 3 pm.
