Rajabandh (West Midnapore), June 1: Police today claimed to have identified several of the people involved in throwing the Jnaneswari Express off the tracks.

“We have detained some people and are interrogating them, but the main culprits who carried out the derail- ment are absconding,” said director-general of police Bhupinder Singh.

The alleged culprits have been apparently identified from intercepted telephone conversations. They are all said to be from villages in the vicinity of crash site Rajabandh. Vill-ages like Indraboni, Rasua, Banstola and Kushtoli, which The Telegraph had visited yesterday and found out how the Maoists’ eyes and ears were at work, keeping watch on outsiders and relaying information about them over the phone to their leaders.

The police said the members of the “village defence squads” who had carried out the sabotage to derail the train had done it without contacting their bosses immediately before or after the operation.

The squad members had made about 80 calls among themselves on the eve of the disaster, but none to any senior Maoist leader.

The Maoists have trained the so-called village defence squads in the use of arms but some of those in the groups are now threatening to go out of their bosses’ control.

The police said they had tracked down calls made by about 30 squad members since Friday’s tragedy, which left 150 dead. From these conversations, the police suspect the village squad leaders may not have expected such a heavy civilian toll. “They had not thought a goods train could come from the opposite direction and crash into the derailed train,” an officer said. “Suddenly they became very anxious at the possibility of there being so many civilian casualties.”

Maoist leaders started communicating with village-level squad members apparently after they came to know about the number of civilian casualties. “They were seeking explanations from their foot soldiers for the sabotage on a track on which a passenger train was scheduled to run,” an officer said.

“The Maoist leaders wanted to know why they had not been informed in advance about the operation.”

The duo said to have led the operation — Bapi Mahato and Umakanta Mahato — had allegedly kept in touch between themselves and other village-level squad members almost through that night. “We have the cellphone numbers of many of the squad members and know the details of the calls made by them,” an officer involved in the probe said.

“Also, questioning some villagers, we have come to know about those involved in the derailment of the train.”

Preparations for the Friday morning strike had begun the day before. The village squad members were gathering crowbars and hammers to take off the Pandrol clips, which tie the tracks to the sleepers. The police are finding out if casual railway personnel, who work on the tracks, were also involved. They may have been forced to join in, given their experience.

Additional director-general of police, CID, Raj Kanojia said they had evidence that it was a Maoist operation. “Officers are gathering more information,” he added.