Odisha train accident: Railway official suspected of ‘deliberate interference’; CBI started investigation

Bhubaneswar: A 10-member CBI team on Monday visited the Balasore train accident site and started investigation into the three train accidents. A railway official gave this information. Rintesh Ray, DRM, Khurda Road Division of ECoR, said that as per his information the CBI probe has started but the details are not immediately known. The Railway Board had on Sunday recommended a CBI inquiry into the accident.

Earlier, Railway Safety Commissioner Shailesh Kumar Pathak visited the accident site where he visited the control room, signal room and signal point of Bahanaga Bazar railway station. In addition, the Government Railway Police in Balasore has registered a case on June 3 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Railways Act regarding the accident.

Responding to questions on the need for a CBI probe when the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) was already probing the incident, an official indicated that the preliminary probe revealed the need for a more thorough probe. “A lot of information has come to the fore during the investigation. Various types of information have been made available which require a professional investigative agency,” he said.

The accident in which a speeding Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train on the loop line instead of traveling on the main line, indicated problems with the electronic interlocking system which changed the train’s path and caused the collision. “Unless there is a deliberate interference in the system, it is impossible that the route earmarked for the main line is converted into a loop line,” he said.

The Railways has also launched a security drive with several guidelines to all zonal headquarters for the security of station relay rooms and compounds housing signaling equipment, including “double locking arrangements”, as a suspected cause after preliminary investigation. Shown is “signal interference”. Behind the Odisha triple-train accident.

Official sources said that as per procedure, the CBI has taken over the Balasore GRP case number 64 registered by the Odisha Police on June 3. various sections of the IPC such as 37 and 38 (related to causing hurt and endangering life through rash or negligent action), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 34 (common intention), and section 153 (unlawful and A case was registered under the act causing danger by negligence). lives of railway passengers), sections 154 and 175 (endangering life) of the Railways Act.