New Delhi, Mar 22 (IANS): Two days after the incident of fire in the luggage cum guard coach in the New Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express, the Northern Railway on Monday said that it has arrested Gyanendra Pandey, a manager of the loading party who declared the inflammable items as courier items.

Northern Railway spokesperson Deepak Kumar said that after the fire in the New Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express at Ghaziabad station on Saturday, three task teams of the RPF were constituted for an enquiry under the leadership of Sr DSC (Coord).

He said the first team of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) was at the place of occurrence Ghaziabad station, the second team at the loading point at the New Delhi Parcel office and the third team for CCTV, evidence collection, interrogation and arrest.

The NR official said that during the probe it was found that many red tariff items like acid based battery items, bluetooth, source of power to inflammable items, mobile cleaner liquid etc. were collected from the place of occurrence.

He said, "It was found that Pandey, who worked as a manager of a loading party had declared these items in forwarding note as courier goods in place of inflammable items."

The official said that during his questioning Pandey confessed to providing wrong information to the railways.

Kumar said that he also identified his booked inflammable items, which were seized by the railways after the fire.

"Pandey was arrested under several sections of the Railways Act for putting life of passengers in danger and sending inflammable and potential burning items in train and misdeclaration."

The official added that samples have been collected by the RPF and secured and the force has approached the Forensic Science Laboratory at Ghaziabad requesting for an early report.

Kumar said that in view of the fire, an intensive drive is being launched in all divisions and all major stations for detecting such inflammable material.