Indebted laborers try to derail train after watching YouTube videos
Two indebted farm laborers were nabbed on Tuesday for allegedly trying to derail an Okha-Bhavnagar train in Gujarat's Botad district on September 25. According to the police, the duo, Jayesh Nagarbhai Bawaliya (24) and Ramesh Kanji Saliya (55), had planned this act as a strategy to rob passengers on the train. They reportedly came up with this plot after watching related videos on YouTube.
Accused placed rail piece on tracks to derail train
To carry out their plan, the two accused placed a rail piece vertically on the tracks near Kundli village around 3:30am on September 25. The duo had reportedly stolen this rail piece from a nearby railway repair site and had fled when their attempt to derail the train failed. During preliminary interrogation, Ramesh revealed that he had debts amounting to ₹3 lakh-₹4 lakh.
Accused booked under multiple sections of Indian law
Bawaliya and Saliya have been charged under Sections 61, 62, and 125 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita. These sections deal with voluntarily causing hurt, grievous hurt, and sedition, respectively. The police are currently probing whether more people were part of this scheme. Their arrest comes on the heels of another incident where three railway trackmen were caught for sabotaging a track near Kim station on September 21 in Surat district.
Previous arrests in similar train derailment attempts
The three trackmen arrested earlier—Subhash Poddar, Manish Mistry, and Shubham Jaiswal—are accused of removing fishplates and loosening bolts on the track near Kim station. They then tipped off the authorities about their act, falsely claiming that they had averted a possible train accident. The police said these three confessed to tampering with tracks for rewards and to extend their favorable duty hours.
