The Central Bureau of Investigation of India has arrested three employees of the Indian Railways in connection with last month's train accident in Odisha, which killed over 290 people, Indian media reported Friday
NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2023) The Central Bureau of Investigation of India has arrested three employees of the Indian Railways in connection with last month's train accident in Odisha, which killed over 290 people, Indian media reported Friday.
Senior Section Engineer Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar were arrested and charged with homicide and destruction of evidence, India's NDTV channel said. Their actions led to the accident, but they did not arrange it, the broadcaster's sources said. Accordingly, the three Indian Railways employees were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, the report said.
The train collision occurred on June 2 near the city of Balasore. According to the Indian Railways Ministry, several coaches of a passenger train traveling from Kolkata to Chennai derailed due to a collision with a freight train and fell onto the opposite track. After some time, another passenger train collided with them and several more coaches carrying people derailed. According to the latest government data, the accident killed more than 293 people, and left over 1,100 injured.
The reason for the collision was the failure of an electronic safeguard system designed to prevent contradictory train movements, NDTV said, citing the government. An independent inquiry by the Commission of Railways Safety showed that remedial actions could have been taken to prevent the accident, if the malfunctioning was reported to the commission by the railway personnel, according to the report.
On July 2, the Commissioner of Railways Safety investigating the accident pointed to the human error as a cause of the crash, dismissing the possibility of a technical malfunction, machine fault or sabotage.
