Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today questioned the sabotage angle to the derailment of the Hyderabad-Bangalore Express and ordered a CID probe into the mishap. Speaking to mediapersons after reviewing the progress of investigation, Naidu said: ‘‘We have to probe the accident thoroughly before coming to any conclusion.’’ Naidu’s opinion contradicts the view of senior railway officials, who said yesterday that the accident was an act of sabotage. Twenty people were killed in the mishap.He said though a part of the rail was found cut, another part was found broken. Hence the government had decided to take the opinion of experts by sending the rail to the Defence and Metallurgical Research Laboratories for analysis. ‘‘We can determine the cause only after obtaining the report and gathering evidence from the gangmen who inspect the tracks,’’ he said.With the hacksaw blades found near the track and the iron filings under the tracks at the accident site smooth, a controversy had erupted over the cause of the accident. A team of forensic experts had collected samples of metallic powder of the tracks and the rails for chemical analysis which would throw light on the cause of the mishap. Meanwhile, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said in Lakhisarai in Bihar that his ministry was according high priority to maintenance of tracks, spending over Rs 3,000 crore annually.
