Railway track & firecrackers: Ex-jawan’s ‘explosive’ plot to get job extension as lineman

Police ex-Armyman, anxious about losing his Railways job, orchestrated a trackside scare near Vadodara with fireworks—only to be unmasked as both complainant and accused.

Mustaq Ali Sayyed, who was arrested by the Vadodara Police, after he allegedly planted explosives on the railway track and reported them himself | By special arrangement

New Delhi: Three days after explosives were found near a railway track, the Vadodara Police and security agencies arrested a 42-year-old ex-armyman who had reported the threat. He allegedly planted the explosives himself in a bid to secure an extension of his current Railways job.

The accused has been identified as Mustaq Ali Sayyed, who was earlier a jawan in the Army and had then taken up a job with the Railways as a contractual linesman. Police said he feared his tenure would end this year, and was under the impression that employees who performed “commendable” and “outstanding” acts, such as preventing accidents were rewarded with contract extensions, prizes, or permanent positions.

DCP (Zone 1) Jagdish Chavda said that on 21 February, around 8 am, Sayyed, who was on foot patrol from Vasad to Makarpura near the dedicated freight corridor, told the Railway Protection Force about explosives on the track.

When a team of local police, crime branch, bomb disposal squad an forensic officers reached the spot, they found four fire crackers “intentionally placed” on the railway track near Angadh village.

An FIR was filed at Nandesari police station for intent to cause damage or destruction of railway property, endangering the safety of railway passengers under the Indian Railway Act, 1989. An FIR was also filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for criminal conspiracy and for rash or negligent acts.

During forensic examination, officials found the objects were non-hazardous sparklers used at weddings and festivals.

“Sayyed’s behavior seemed suspicious. During sustained interrogation, he revealed that it was him who placed the explosives, and he sourced it from a nearby wedding function. He found five units; and placed them deliberately on the railway track, during his routine foot patrolling duty. The complainant in the case turned out to be the accused,” the DCP added.

Sayyed’s railway duty involved routine foot and cross patrolling of allocated stretches, during which linemen inspect track safety.

“Sayyed believed that by ‘discovering’ and reporting the explosives, he would be praised for alertness, and bravery, it would help him secure an extension of contract,” DCP said. “He hatched the entire conspiracy.”

(Edited by Viny Mishra)