Stones pelted at Lucknow-bound Vande Bharat near Ayodhya, 3 arrested
The police said that accused, now in their custody, revealed that they hurled stones to vent their anger as their animals had been run over by the same train
Three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the Vande Bharat Express train on July 7, a man and his two sons hurled stones at the train, smashing its window panes.
Read here: Stones pelted at newly launched Vande Bharat Express in Kerala
The police said there were no reports of any injuries to passengers who were travelling by the train from Gorakhpur to Lucknow.
Stone pelting on trains is not uncommon but this was the first incident of a Vande Bharat train being targeted in the state. The accused told the police that they hurled stones on the train when it was passing near Sohawal station in Ayodhya, under Raunahi police station on Tuesday morning.
SSP Ayodhya Raj Karan Nayyar in a video statement on twitter said after investigations, the three accused were taken into custody.
“The accused were identified as Munu Paswan and his two sons Ajay and Vijay. During investigation, they revealed that on July 9, six goats had run over by the same train and that is why they hurled stones at it on Tuesday,” the SSP said.
“Window panes of C1 coach (seat 33, 34), C3 (seat 20, 21, 22), C5 (seat 10, 11, 12), E1 ( seat 35, 36) were damaged,” officials of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and local police said after inspecting the spot.
Read here: Stones pelted at Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat train again for fifth time
On January 9, five youth in Prayagraj division had pelted stones on two Rajdhani Express trains headed for Kolkata and broke 14 windows solely for Snapchat videos
Past attacks on Vande Bharat trains:
In January and April, stone pelting on Vande Bharat trains was reported in Visakhapatnam.
February 26, stones were pelted at the Mysore Chennai Vande Bharat.
March 12: stones were hurled at another Vande Bharat train in West Bengal.
June 19: stones were pelted at the E1 coach of Dehradun bound Vande Bharat Express at Kerala.
Read here: Stone pelted at Delhi-Dehradun Vande Bharat Express in UP's Muzaffarnagar
July 11: Stones hurled on Vande Bharat train near Ayodhya
