Gharaunda (Haryana), Sep 17 (IANS) Two teenagers from poor families were arrested here Thursday evening for allegedly throwing stones at a train in which Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was travelling, police said. The boys confessed they threw stones regularly at passing trains for fun.

Haryana Police detained three teenaged boys in the morning for questioning but released one of them (aged 19 years) in the evening. The other two, aged 14 and 16, were formally arrested and booked under the Indian Railways Act.

"Based on our investigations, we detained three teenagers from Gharaunda village for questioning. We have arrested two of them. They hail from very poor families," Inspector General of Police (Rohtak) V. Kamaraj told IANS.

He added, "The railway guard said that the miscreants were in the age group of 16-17 years. So we were focusing on youngsters in the neighbouring villages."

The official ruled out the possibility of political parties being involved in the incident.

"Not at all, there is no political party involved in it. However, our investigation is still under progress and very soon we will nab the accused," Kamraj said.

Police launched a hunt for those who hurled stones at the Swarn Shatabdi Express in which Gandhi was travelling from Ludhiana to New Delhi Tuesday evening. Gandhi had taken a train, shunning the usual helicopter ride, as part of austerity measures initiated by the Congress party.

One of the arrested boys said: "We throw stones at trains everyday as we derive fun out of this activity. We did not know that Rahul Gandhi was travelling in the train on that day."

Though no one was injured in the train attack, the window panes of three coaches, C-2, C-4 and C-7, were damaged.

One stone pierced the twin glass window of the Shatabdi Express and landed inside coach C-4. The glass panes of two other coaches cracked.

However, none of the stones hit the C-3 coach in which Rahul Gandhi was seated near the window.