Malda, Nov. 7: Police arrested a man in connection with the “theft” of the two wooden sleepers near Chamagram station, a day after Gour Express averted a disaster narrowly.

Uday Mondal, a notorious thug from Sateromail in Baishnabnagar police station area, was picked up on the basis of a First Information Report filed by the Malda division of Eastern Railway, police sources said. The other two named in the complaint were Hemanta Mondal and Nazrul Hussain, the local toughs from the same village.

Railway sources said they had named the three in the FIR after receiving information from “reliable” sources that they were behind the theft of the sleepers.

Neither the railway nor the police could say the motive for the so-called theft, a high-risk, time-consuming job.

The Malda-bound Gour Express, packed with passengers, had a narrow escape yesterday as it passed over the tracks with the missing sleepers minutes before the detection yesterday morning.

The Malda-bound Farakka Express, which had come hurtling down, was stopped at Farakka station at the last minute. The train, coming from Delhi and full of passengers, was to pass through the area where the missing sleepers were reported.

The railway authorities said it could have been “an act of sabotage.”

Malda divisional railway manager Vijay Kumar Mangalik said the railway had written to the Malda district authorities, seeking its help to protect the tracks from sabotage. He said it is impossible for the railway to protect the tracks on its own.

“The state government also has the responsibility for protecting the rail’s property. We cannot guard it without the administration’s help,” Valmik said.

Police, however, refused to say the missing sleepers were an act of sabotage.

Railway sources said criminal activity had gone up manifold in Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar police station areas. They said several thefts of railway goods had already been reported in area like Chamagram and Khaltipur.

“We are especially worried about the safety of a 30 km-long stretch of tracks passing through the area,” sources said.