Kanpur train accident was conspiracy from across the border: PM Modi

At a public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district, near the Indo-Nepal border, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the train accident in Kanpur on November 20, 2016, was a terror attack. He said hundreds were killed in the accident and the "conspiracy" was hatched from across the border. The PM appealed that people shouldn't cast their vote for those who were likely to help terrorists from across the border and make Gonda, and India, unsafe.

On November 20, several coaches of the Patna bound Indore-Rajendranagar Express had derailed in Pukhrayan, near Kanpur Dehat. With 148 people killed, it was the deadliest train accident in India since 1999. Initially, the cause of these accidents was attributed to track fractures and wagon defects.

 In its preliminary report, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) found no evidence of sabotage in the November 20 accident. The report identified overaged coaches, carriage and wagon defects, and wheel alignment issues, as the primary reasons behind the derailment. Read more