|
|
Keyman Budhu Karwa
|
Tatanagar railway police will recommend a cash reward for keyman Budhu Karwa to say a big thank you for spotting explosives hidden beneath Bhurudih tracks on Sunday.
Mrityunjay Kishore, superintendent of police (railways) Tatanagar, said they would write to Railway Board and state home department in a day or two.
“Though many may say what Karwa has done is just a part of his day’s work, it is a fact that keymen posted for track surveillance seldom succeed in detecting any bomb. It wasn’t a fluke, Karwa was truly alert and clued-in,” said Kishore.
The superintendent of police (railways) added that in the past there had been a number of landmine blasts on railway tracks between Ghatshila and Jhargram and Chakradharpur-Manoharpur sections.
“If all keymen detected acts of sabotage on railway tracks with the same intelligence like Karwa, explosions on Ghatshila-Jhargram or Chakradharpur-Manoharpur sections would not have taken place,” the senior railway police officer said.
Railway Board or home department would decide the quantum of cash reward, he added.
A keyman is posted every three kilometres of a railway track. His job is to inform railway authorities, including police, about anything unusual seen or found on railway tracks or any suspicious-looking people close by.
A keyman lives by his eyesight, intuition, wits and common sense.
But as superintendent of police (railways) Kishore would say, common sense is truly uncommon.
On his Sunday morning patrol, Karwa had detected wires creeping on tracks near Bhurudih level crossing on the Tata-Badampahar section under Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway.
It led to the discovery of three pipe bombs, three batteries and six gelatine sticks under a fishplate.
Karwa spotted the entire terror package barely two hours after Tata-Badampahar Passenger, which goes to Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, safely passed on tracks.
East Singhbhum district police, which is probing the matter, is yet to find out who planted the bombs. But subdivisional police officer of Ghatshila Kartik S. said those behind the job seemed to be rank amateurs.
“It looks like the persons behind this incident didn’t have much hands-on experience of planting bombs. They had fixed batteries of 6 volts. But for detonating the package, these bombs needed batteries of 12 volts,” he said.
Kartik added that the area wasn’t exactly Naxalite-hit, making the detection of culprits a tough job.
|
