Drug addict hijacks railway engine

Sangrur, Nov 27 (UNI) A drug addict hailing from Haryana today hijacked a diesel engine from the Dhuri railway station and drove it for about 40 km to Barnala railway station.

The addict identified as Mithu Ram a resident of Akkewal village in Fatehabad district of Haryana was under the influence of poppy husk and was arrested by the railway police late in the evening at Barnala. He was booked under sections 173, 175, 154 and 156 of the Railway Act for causing damage to railway property.

Additional DRM, (Ferozepur) Anup Gupta in a report had said that an unmanned diesel engine at Dhuri Railway station suddenly sped away on the tracks and continued its solitary run to Barnala. Mr Gupta had ordered an inquiry into the incident.

According to railway police officials the mystery of the unmanned engine was solved in the evening, when a group of slum dwellers alongside the rail track told them that they had seen a man get off the engine after it derailed.

Taking a lead from the in the railway police took into custody Mithu Ram from near the Barnala railway station.

Admitting that he was a habitual drug addict, Mithu Ram told the police that the main motive behind his misadventure was to go to Rajasthan in search of poppy husk, as it was easily avaliable there.

Seeing the empty engine at the Dhuri railway station, he boarded it, Mithu Ram Said.

It was while he was fiddling with the levers of the engine that it began to move and gradually picked-up speed. Mithu Ram received minor bruises when he jumped off the engine.

The police said that Mithu Ram jumped off the engine near the Barnala station when it caught fire and then derailed. Fire tenders were called in to douse the blaze, which was later described as minor.

There was no adverse effect on the railway traffic and no harm was caused to man or material, Mr Gupta told UNI earlier in the day.

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