Balasore accident: CBI makes first arrests, 3 railway staff held

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday took into custody three railway personnel in connection with the June 2 Balasore train accident, making its first arrests in the case, officials said.

The agency arrested Senior Section Engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar, all posted in Balasore district.

The three have been arrested under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence).

The Balasore accident took place on June 2 near the Bahanaga Bazar station in the Balasore district of Odisha. The accident involved collision of three trains: the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a stationary goods train killing 287 on the spot, while hundreds of them were injured. It was one of the worst railway disasters in India.

The railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw sought a CBI inquiry into the Balasore train crash. Railway officials also indicated that possible "sabotage" and tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, led to the accident.

A high-level inquiry on this incident has found "wrong signalling" to be the main reason for the Balasore train accident and flagged "lapses at multiple levels" in the signalling and telecommunication (S&T) department, but indicated the tragedy could have been averted if past red flags were reported.

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".

It said that a team of field supervisors modified the wiring diagram and failed to replicate it.