Nepali ISI agent, key suspect in Kanpur train derailment, held

A Nepalese man suspected to be an operative of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, who is a key accused in the Kanpur train derailment case where 140 people died, has been arrested from an airport in Kathmandu after being deported from Dubai, India's National Investigating Agency said today.

Officials in the NIA said Shamsul Hoda was in Dubai when a local criminal Brij Giri, who was arrested in Nepal, exposed Hoda's role in the derailment of Indore-Patna Express that went off the tracks near Kanpur Dehat in Pukhrayan killing 140 people on 21 November.

''Hoda was departed back from Dubai to Nepal and arrested there. We will seek access to him through legal channels,'' NIA sources said.

Bihar police are probing whether the train derailment was an act of sabotage with possible ties to the Pakistan spy agency. They arrested three men on charges of involvement in the incident in January this year and suspect Hoda was their handler and may have ISI links.

Official added that the accused were hired through a chain of handlers in Nepal and Dubai and the Dubai-based handler was connected to those in Pakistan. During questioning, one of the men accused the two others of receiving money from Hoda to plant bombs in public spaces and target the train line between Varanasi and Kanpur.