The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested three employees of the Indian Railways in connection with the horrific train accident in Odisha’s Balasore last month that killed more than 293 people.
The arrested men — Senior Section Engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar — have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and destruction of evidence.
The investigation has revealed that the actions of these three lead to the accident and “they had knowledge” that their actions would result in this tragedy but not the “intent.”
They have been charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and If they had the intent, then they would have been charged for murder.
Last week, the Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) probing the accident had flagged human error of workers in the signalling department as responsible for the accident. They dismissed the likelihood of a sabotage or a technical glitch or a machine fault.
The alleged negligence on the part of a few ground officials who did not follow adequate safety procedures of inspection was highlighted in the CRS report.
Following the CRS report, the Congress alleged that the Union government has “thoroughly compromised” on basic issues of railway safety. The Congress also said the “human error” exposed the failure of the management and the political leadership.
