Balasore Train Tragedy: Three Railway Employees Named in CBI Charge Sheet
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet today, September 2, against three railway employees in connection with the Balasore train accident that killed more then 292 passengers on June 2 this year.
The chargesheet filed in a Bhubaneswar court has named Arun Kumar Mahanta and Mohammad Amir Khan from the signals and telecommunications department and technician, Pappu. All three had been arrested a month after the accident.
They have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence amongst other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The multiple-train crash happened when the Coromandel Express entered a loop line accidentally and crashed into a stationary goods train carrying a load of iron ore pellets on the outskirts of the Bahanaga Bazar station. As the train derailed, its bogeys fell on the adjoining track and on the path of the incoming Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express.
The train entered the loop line because of an error in the signalling system, an inquiry by the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety had said. The CBI too found that repairs on the level crossing at gate 94 was done by Mahanta and team using a circuit diagram of gate 79. The trio violated standard operating procedures of checking and cross checking that the wiring was in the correct order which they failed to do.
Mahanta had interestingly dissented with the initial preliminary finding of a railway team stating that someone had tampered with the signalling system inside the railway cabin, a charge the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety report negated.
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