Calcutta, June 21: Members of Bapi’s own village defence squad had dissociated themselves from him after their Maoist bosses disowned him, forcing him to seek refuge with a relative in Jamshedpur.

Bapi is said to have told po-lice how he had planned the sabotage with them, assigning duties and guiding them on how to remove the Pandrol clips. It was Bapi’s decision to carry out the derailment and they executed it. But when he sought refuge with them, they turned their backs on him.

“He has confessed to his involvement (in the sabotage). He has also said he was extremely surprised to see his own men refusing to provide him a safe house,” said a CBI officer working on the case.

Bapi apparently provided the police “elaborate details” of when and how he chalked out the sabotage plan. “He said there was a plan to carry out strikes on government property during the Black Week that the Maoists started observing from May 21. Bapi started chalking out plans to execute this decision with his men who live in areas around his village, Rasua, 6km from the sabotage spot,” said an officer.

Bapi claimed that the decision to target the railway tracks was taken on May 26, following alleged atrocities by security forces in nearby Manikpara. The Jnaneswari was derailed on May 28.

According to sources, Bapi was holding a meeting at Murabani village on May 26 when the police raided the village.

Police explained why the Maoist leaders, who had taken Bapi away to their hideout to seek an explanation why he targeted a passenger train keeping the in dark, disowned him.

“They were not happy as the operation had led to a backlash even among their sympathisers. But they did not kill him because he was a foot soldier. Had they killed Bapi, it would have sent a wrong message to their ground-level fighters,” an officer said. “They simply let him fend for himself.”