Haryana officials smell politics in Rahul train attack

The incident of stone-pelting at the Shatabdi Express by which Rahul Gandhi was travelling on Tuesday night is not to be taken lightly. Senior security officials in Haryana see a political angle to it, though they are yet to find conclusive evidence to substantiate their claim.

On Wednesday the police questioned over a dozen people in Karnal to ascertain the identity of the culprits. The police registered a case under Section 152 CrPC, under which the culprit can be sentenced for life.

Eleven windowpanes of the train were smashed when it was passing by the Ghauranda grain market in Karnal around 9.30 pm on Thursday, Rohtak range IG V Kamraj said.
He said the train guard saw “some children” throwing stones at the train, but one wonders why children would stone a train at night. The IG said the train had slowed down to a crawl, “hence the offenders could target windowpanes so precisely.”

Locals are not convinced. “Children in our locality have never stoned a train at night like this,” said Khubi Ram, a former sarpanch. “Besides, stones hurled by children will not break down the windowpanes of an AC train,” he said.

The police concurred with the view and agreed that youth instead of children might be behind the stoning. “Whether they were politically motivated or not is not known,” they said. It was a serious security breach, as the Congress had made Rahul’s planned visit to Ludhiana by Shatabdi Express public two days before. “This might have motivated politically-instigated people to resort to stoning,” a police official said.