Odisha Train Tragedy: 3 Railway Officials Arrested by CBI, Charged With Destruction Of Evidence

Odisha Train Tragedy: These three Railway employees have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and destruction of evidence.

Odisha Train Tragedy: In a major development to the Odisha train tragedy that nearly left 300 dead, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested three employees of the Indian Railways. The arrests were made after the central agency probed the possibility of a criminal conspiracy into the accident. The three arrested railway employees included Arun Kumar Mahanta, Md Amir Khan, and Pappu Kumar. These employees have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and destruction of evidence.

Balasore tragedy: CBI arrests 3 Railways personnel under sections related to destruction of evidence, culpable homicide

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 7, 2023

Sources told NDTV that the actions of these three employees resulted in the accident, and they have been charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder as “they had knowledge” that their actions would result in this tragedy.

Ahead of the arrests, the Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) had last week flagged human error of workers in the signalling department as responsible for the accident and dismissed the likelihood of a sabotage or a technical glitch or a machine fault.

Earlier, the CRS had highlighted negligence on the part of a few ground officials who did not follow adequate safety procedures of inspection.

The independent inquiry report submitted by the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) to the Railway Board said notwithstanding the lapses in signalling work, remedial actions could have been taken by the S&T staff if “repeated unusual behaviour” of switches connecting two parallel tracks were reported to them by the station manager of Bahanaga Bazar, the spot of the accident.

The report also suggested that the non-supply of station-specific approved circuit diagram for the works to replace the electric lifting barrier at level crossing gate 94 at Bahanaga Bazar station was a “wrong step that led to wrong wiring”.

The report also said that there was a similar incident on May 16, 2022 at Bankranayabaz station in Khargpur Division of South Eastern Railway, on account of wrong wiring and cable fault.

“Had corrective measures been taken, after this incident, to address the issue of wrong wiring the accident at BNBR would not have taken place,” the report said.

The accident on June 2 resulted in the deaths of 292 people and over 1000 were injured.