CBI arrests 3 railway officials, says their actions led to Balasore train crash

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested three railway officials for “their act (s)” which led to the June 2 train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district, people familiar with the development said.

The arrested railway employees have been identified as Arun Kumar Mahanta (senior section engineer), Mohammad Amir Khan (section engineer) and Pappu Kumar (technician). They have been charged under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to evidence) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), officials said.

The two stringent sections were added by CBI after a month-long investigation and were not invoked in the first information report (FIR) filed last month on the basis of the case first filed by the Odisha police.

The agency has not detailed the precise role played by the three accused persons but a senior officer said the three were arrested for “their action which led to the incident”, in which at least 293 people were killed.

The CBI action comes three days after the Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) submitted its findings in which it said faulty signalling due to two botched repair works, including one in 2018 and the other hours before the accident had led to the Coromandel Express being sent on a collision course with a goods train on another track.

The CRS noted that the June 2 tragedy could have potentially been avoided had the repeated glitches with the local signalling system been flagged, which could have led the signalling and track staff to trace the mistake that was made in 2018.

CBI probe is looking into any “attempt”, “abetment” and/or “conspiracy” behind the incident.

In its initial FIR, CBI invoked various sections including 304A (causing death by negligence), sections 337 and 338 (related to endangering life of others), and sections 153, 154 and 175 of Railways Act (which also deal with endangering lives).

The accident occurred at Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore around 6.56pm on Friday, when the Coromandel Express rammed into a goods train bearing iron ore. The impact of the collision flung compartments into the adjacent track and some of these coaches hit the last two cars of the Howrah-bound Yesvantpur Express, which was passing by on the opposite line at the same time.