Three railway employees were arrested on Monday for allegedly sabotaging rail tracks in Gujarat’s Surat district. The employees later alerted the authorities about the incident. They wanted a night shift so that they could spend more time with their families during the day, the police said. They also wanted felicitation from their seniors.

The three employees allegedly conspired to derail a train near Kim railway station by removing fishplates and keys from a railway track. The attempt was thwarted.

The three employees have been identified as Subhash Poddar, Manish Mistry and Shubham Jaiswal, who worked as trackmen.

They committed the act to win praise and get themselves felicitated, reported India Today. The incident took place on September 21.

The accused also loosened the bolts of the tracks.

They were inspecting the train tracks on the morning of September 21. They alerted the authorities at 5.30 am. They said some miscreants removed two fishplates and elastic clips and placed them on another in an attempt to derail trains.

The railway authorities told the police that a train had passed on the tracks before the issue was reported to them.

The police noted that no one could come and sabotage the tracks in such a short timeframe.

“The time interval between the tampering being discovered and the passing of the train was too short and it was not possible to remove the clips and plates in such a short time. We checked the mobile phones of the trio and found videos of tampered tracks shot at different intervals starting from 2:56 am to 4:57 am. Mistry had also deleted photos he had taken,” a senior police official told India Today.

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The trackmen later confessed to the crime. They told the police they wanted a night shift so that they could spend time with their families.

The incident came amid a spate of sabotage attempts across the country.

On Tuesday, union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the railway administration was on alert for potential train sabotage bids and had been holding talks with states to bolster security.

“There is a dialogue going on with state governments, DGPs and home secretaries. The NIA is also involved. Strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to cause such an accident. This is our resolve,” he added.

With inputs from PTI