A late evening phone call (around 8.30 pm) by an alert loco pilot of a freight train led to a swift police operation and within hours, the Punjab Police cracked the railway track blast case near Bathonia village on the Rajpura-Shambhu rail line. Jagroop Singh Panjwarh was killed when an explosive device detonated prematurely while he was allegedly attempting to sabotage the rail track.Freight train loco pilot Nitin Tejyan, a native of Muzaffarnagar with over four years of experience, reported damage to the track after feeling a jerk while passing over the section.“I got suspicious and immediately informed my seniors after we noticed the track was damaged. I moved the train slowly as it was loaded with coal and stopped it a little ahead. The police were informed,” he told The Tribune. “I was just doing my duty and we managed to prevent further disruption,” he added.Senior officers, including Patiala DIG Kuldeep Chahal and SSP Varun Sharma, reached the spot soon after receiving information about a blast-like incident.Police teams walked over 2 km to reach the site, where they found a mutilated body. A damaged mobile phone recovered about 100 m away helped identify the deceased through its SIM card, said SP (Headquarters) Vaibhav Chaudhary.The SIM card was traced to an address at Panjwarh village. “It raised more suspicion as the village has had some radical past. We formed teams and managed to arrest accused from different locations within hours,” he said.“We are working on various theories as for now and the questioning of the accused is crucial to our probe,” confirmed the SSP.Preliminary investigation suggests the accused were in touch with foreign-based handlers through a gaming application and exchanged money and radical material.Sources in the police said that Jagroop Singh allegedly managed to get the arms from Pakistan and the improvised explosive device (IED) that was planted on the railway track“There are certain questions as to who provided Jagroop with the explosives. We are also trying to trace everyone involved in the case,” said DIG Patiala range, Kuldeep Chahal.