Cuttack: A team of 10 officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station Tuesday in Odisha’s Balasore district to begin a probe into one of India’s deadliest railway accidents.
The Odisha government had given its consent to the CBI probe, after Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a probe by the federal agency on Saturday.
The CBI has filed an FIR under Sections 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 304A (causing death by negligence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Other charges include Sections 153 (endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by willful act or omission), 154 (endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by rash or negligent act or omission) and 175 (endangering safety of persons if any railway servant, on duty endangers the safety of any person ) under the Railways Act.
ThePrint has a copy of the FIR, which runs into 15 pages.
The FIR states, “attempt, abetment and/or conspiracy, in relation to or in connection with such offence(s) and/or for any other offence committed in the course of the same transaction or arising out of the same facts,” will be probed by the CBI.
At least 288 people were killed in Friday’s collision involving the Coromandel Express, the Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and a goods train in Odisha’s Bahanaga Bazar.
On 4 June, Jaya Varma Sinha, member, operations and business development and ex-officio secretary, Ministry of Railways, had written to Radha Chauhan, Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) seeking a CBI probe into the accident.
“As you may be aware a major rail mishap involving the Coromandel Express, occurred at Bahanaga Bazar in the state of Odisha on the 2 June 2023, which also impacted two coaches of Yeshwantpur Express. I am directed to request you to initiate a probe by the CBl into the causes leading to this mishap. This has the approval of the Hon’ble Minister of Railways,” Sinha wrote in the letter accessed by ThePrint.
In its FIR lodged against unknown persons, the Government Railway Police (GRP) states the unfortunate event took place due to negligence of railways causing heavy loss of human lives and property.
According to the FIR filed by Balasore GRP sub-inspector Papu Naik, “many passengers succumbed to the injuries caused due to the collision and electrocution coming in contact with overhead L.T. Line”.
“The tragic incident resulted in the death toll of more than hundred and injury in several hundreds. The dead bodies and injured persons were shifted to nearby Bhadrak/Soro/Balasore/other hospitals,” the FIR states
Naik had rushed to the accident site along with GRP personnel and saw the deadly collision of two passenger express trains.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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