New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested three Railways employees Friday as part of its probe into the horrific Balasore train accident on 2 June that killed at least 290 people and injured over a thousand.
Those arrested – senior section engineer Arun Mohanta, section engineer Mohammad Amir Khan and technician Pappu Kumar – have been booked for culpable homicide (Section 304) and destruction of evidence (Section 201).
A source in the agency said: “The investigation has found lapses on their part and their actions led to the accident.” This person did not explain the exact nature of their roles.
The agency had registered a first information report (FIR) last month after the case was transferred to it from the local police.
The initial charges mentioned in the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, are Section 337 (causing hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or personal safety), 304A (causing death by negligence), 34 (common intention) and other sections of the Railway Act. Sections 304 and 201 were added later.
The agency was asked to probe the reasons behind the crash after initial investigation hinted at tampering with the electronic interlocking system, raising fears of a possible “sabotage”.
The initial stages of the probe had also hinted at “signalling error” which may have led to the smash-up between the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, the Sir M Visvesvaraya-Howrah Superfast Express Express and a stationary freight train.
The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) also constituted a high-level inquiry into the accident. In its findings, submitted to the Railway Ministry, the CRS cited lapses at multiple levels in the Signal and Telecommunication (S&T) department.
The report apparently said the S&T staff had failed to notice faulty wiring in the location box near the Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station – the exact site of the accident. It went undetected for five years, the report claimed.
The CRS also indicated that the tragedy could have been averted if past red flags were heeded.
The independent inquiry said — notwithstanding the lapses in signalling work — remedial action could have been taken by the S&T staff if the “repeated unusual behaviour” of switches connecting two parallel tracks was reported to them by the station manager of Bahanaga Bazar.
Also read: Odisha train accident: Official flagged ‘serious flaws in signalling system’ in February