A 12-year-old boy said he had spotted a cave-in near railway tracks in Malda district and saved the Kanchenjungha Express from a probable accident on Saturday by removing the red T-shirt he was wearing and waving it at the long-distance train.

However, Sabyasachi De, the chief public relations officer of the Northeast Frontier Railway, said employees had spotted the cave-in and stopped the train.

“Some of our men noticed the cave-in and passed the information to necessary quarters. The information was passed to the driver who in turn stopped the train,” De said over the phone from Maligaon, the NFR headquarters in Assam.

The Kanchenjungha Express had left Sealdah on Saturday morning. When the train was approaching a station in the Malda district, the Class VI student was moving along the track with some others.

“I found that there was a hole under the track. The soil and the pebbles have been washed away probably because of rain. Soon, I heard the train approaching the area,” he said.

The boy, who was wearing a red T-shirt, took it off and started waving the cloth in the air to draw the attention of the loco pilot.

“The loco pilot noticed me and stopped the train ahead of the damaged stretch,” he added.

Railwaymen reached the spot and carried out necessary repairs, following which the train resumed the journey.

Trinamul Congress leaders, including Tajmul Hossain who is the minister of state for MSME and textiles, reached the boy’s home and felicitated him.

However, in the evening, the chief public relations officer of the NFR said it was not the boy but railway men who had stopped the train.

The railways’ claim didn’t go down well with Trinamul leaders.

“They (railways) didn’t appreciate the boy’s effort which saved hundreds of passengers from a probable accident as it would have exposed the lapses in ensuring the safety of travelers. They should have instead felicitated and rewarded the boy,” said Hossain.

MLA and Malda district Trinamul president Abdur Rahim Boxi also criticised the railways.

“Truth should always prevail. Everyone knows the boy saved the lives of so many passengers. The railway officials should have rewarded him, instead of playing down his effort. The appreciation would have encouraged many others to save national properties,” said Boxi.

Malda North MP Khagen Murmu reached the boy’s home on Sunday and congratulated him. His visit was seen as an attempt to control the damage.

“The boy’s intelligence saved the train. I had a talk with the divisional railway manager of Katihar today and asked him to felicitate the boy. I would also recommend his name to the railway minister,” said Murmu.

De, the CPRO stuck to his statement.

“I have spoken on the basis of information that was gathered from our sources. Now that the issue has been raised, we will try to know again what exactly happened at the spot,” he said today.