FIR in Gujarat against owners of buffaloes hit by Vande Bharat Express

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has registered a case against the owners of buffaloes that were hit by the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat express, in which the front portion of the train was damaged, officials said on Friday. The nose cone cover of the driver coach of the semi-high speed train, which got damaged after hitting the buffaloes, was replaced with a new one in Mumbai, the Western Railway (WR) said in a statement.

The newly-launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train had hit the herd of buffaloes around 11.15 am on Thursday near Ahmedabad, when the train was on its way to Gandhinagar. Four buffaloes were killed in the incident, the officials said. “The RPF has lodged a first information report (FIR) against the unidentified owners of the buffaloes that came in the way of Vande Bharat train between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Ahmedabad,” WR’s senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) Jitendra Kumar Jayant said.

RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma posted at Vatva railway station said the FIR was filed under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, which deals with unauthorised entry into any part of a railway and misuse of its property. “The FIR was registered on Thursday evening in connection with the incident in which four buffaloes were killed,” he said. The railway police have not yet been able to identify the owners of the buffaloes so far and efforts are on to do so, he said.