Kanpur train accident was conspiracy from across border: PM in UP

The Kanpur train tragedy in which 150 people were killed, was a "conspiracy" and the perpetrators carried it out "sitting across the border" in Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said.

Addressing an election meeting in Uttar Pradesh' Gonda district, which is close to the Indo-Nepal border, he touched upon the derailment of 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express near Pukhraya in Kanpur Dehat district on November 20, and said the findings showed it was a "conspiracy".

"The Kanpur rail accident in which hundreds of people were killed was a conspiracy and conspirators carried it out sitting across the border... Gonda is adjoining Nepal," he said.

"If the cross-border foes want to carry out their work, is it not necessary that more vigil is maintained in Gonda," Modi asked people as he exhorted them to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Gonda needs to elect only those who are full of patriotism, only then we can do anything good for Gonda," he said.

"There should not be any mistake in this election... be it the Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party, not a single seat should go to them... 100 per cent seats should be won by the BJP," the prime minister said.

Nepalese national Shamshul Hoda, an alleged ISI agent and the prime suspect in the Kanpur train tragedy, was arrested on February 7 in Kathmandu after being deported from Dubai, Nepal police had said.

After the November train tragedy, at least 62 passengers were injured on December 28 when 15 coaches of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express derailed while it was crossing a bridge near Rura Railway Station in Kanpur Rural district.