Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claims to have obtained solid evidence of theft of 11 locomotive radiators worth Rs 25 million, stolen from Railway workshop and those responsible would be taken to task soon. "Some evidence has been found and the culprits are likely to be prosecuted for theft very soon", well placed sources in Pakistan Railway revealed to Business Recorder here on Thursday.
Assistant Mechanical Engineer Loco Shed Rana Amanullah and five others lodged an FIR of the theft. However, after an inquiry the FIA arrested them and registered a case against them. Sources further said that bail has been granted to five of the six who were in FIA custody while one remains in custody. The man in custody is a truck driver in Railway.
Pakistan Railways is facing acute locomotive crisis which has hampered its operation and 11 locomotives at the loco shed lost their radiators and are now rusting. These radiators cost Rs 25 million and had not developed any fault but were allegedly stolen in the machine shop. Out of 11 radiators, seven were removed in October and four in December last year. These radiators were imported from China and Germany weighing 250 kg each. Initially, former chairman Railways Raja Muhammad Shahid constituted a four-member fact finding committee headed by Deputy Chief Engineer, Carriage Factory to probe the theft. Divisional Personnel Officer, Fayyaz Khan, DN-I, Inam Ullah Mahsud, DSP Railways Police, Raja Zaheer were its members. The Committee was given the task to fix the responsibility for the disappearance of the radiators.
The inquiry committee concluded that all radiators must be considered to be stolen. The committee in its report recommended investigating those involved in this crime by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or FIA and recovering the radiators.
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