New Delhi:
CBI Three railway employees were arrested on Friday Balasore Train accident that killed 294 people and they were booked Indian Penal Code Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 201 (destroying evidence).
The agency has not invoked Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) against the accused, which shows that it has no evidence of sabotage at this stage.
All three are senior section engineer (signal) and in-charge of Balasore, Arun Mahant. MD Aamir Khana section engineer, and technician Pappu Kumar, Though the CBI is tight-lipped, faulty repair work on a signaling device located just before the accident site is being probed as a possible cause of the triple-train accident.
Mahant gave dissent note in Odisha accident inquiry report
The CBI’s findings tally with the joint inspection report that the Railways prepared soon after the accident and also with the findings of the Commissioner of Railway Safety who submitted his report last week. Significantly, Mahanta, who was part of the team that prepared the joint inspection report, had given a note of disagreement with its preliminary findings, which diagnosed faulty signaling as the likely cause of the tragedy.
Sources said the use of IPC sections showed that Troika was aware that their negligence could lead to an accident, but had no intention of doing so. Had the investigation established intent, he would have been charged with murder. Sources said the allegation of destruction of evidence has been made as the accused allegedly tried to cover up their statements after the accident.
Officials said the charge was not murder due to lack of motive or intent, but culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The sections under which the accused have been booked are different from the sections invoked in the FIR. CBI had filed on June 6 FIR Under various IPC sections – those relating to causing death by negligence and grievous hurt (337/338/204A).
At around 7 pm on June 2, the Coromandel Express rammed into the rear of a goods train standing on the loop line at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district. The last two coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express, which was passing down the down line (Howrah side) at the same time, collided with the derailed coaches of the Coromandel Express and overturned.
The arrests by the CBI come a week after the CRS submitted its report and blamed “lapses at multiple levels in the Signaling and Telecommunication (S&T) department” for the worst railway accident in the last three decades. Railway sources said that in case of any accident, the concerned staff do not interfere in the system. According to the sections of the IPC imposed on the accused, they have been accused of destroying evidence.