Stones hurled at Vande Bharat carrying UP Governor Anandiben Patel

A man allegedly threw stones at the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express near Surat while Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel was travelling on Tuesday. He was apprehended by the RPF, while officials said nobody was injured and there was no apparent conspiracy

Surat: A man allegedly hurled stones at the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express near Surat, in which Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel was travelling on Tuesday evening, an official said. Nobody was injured in the incident. The official said the man is slightly mentally unstable and he was apprehended soon after the incident. UP Governor Anandiben Patel had boarded the train from Vapi station after attending an event organised at Daman by the Union Territory administration.

The incident occurred under the jurisdiction of Utran police station in Surat district and the man was caught by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), said Abhay Soni, Western Railway’s Superintendent of Police (SP) for the Vadodara division. The man was apprehended by an RPF foot patrol unit after the incident, he said. “Stones were found in his bag. During his questioning, he told the RPF that he was throwing stones at a dog. He had also allegedly thrown stones at a goods train that passed earlier,” Soni said.

The man appeared to be “slightly mentally unstable”, he said, adding that there was no indication of any deliberate or conspiratorial attempt behind the incident. He said no one was injured, and the stones did not hit the coach in which Patel was travelling. “There is only a minor scratch on the glass. Nothing happened to anyone. The coach that was hit was far away from the one in which Patel was sitting,” Soni said. Further action is being taken by the Utran police and railway authorities, he added.