A CBI team on Tuesday began investigating allegations of criminal negligence leading to the Balasore railway accident involving three trains, with officials saying the agency may take views of rail safety experts to get to the bottom of the case. A team of six CBI officials led by Joint Director Special Crime Viplav Kumar Choudhry reached the accident site at Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station on Tuesday.

 

The team was accompanied by railway officials, they said. The team inspected the main line and loop line and also went to the signal room where it met railway officials. The CBI will soon start questioning the officers present at the Bahanaga station including Assistant Station Master SB Mohanty and other personnel manning the signals and track upkeep, they said. Meanwhile, the Odisha Government on Tuesday revised the death toll in the Balasore train crash to 288. Following a mandatory notification from the Department of Personnel and Training for handing over the probe to the CBI, the central agency registered its FIR at 2.15 PM on Tuesday.x The registration of an FIR is the starting point of the CBI investigation because the agency cannot collect any document or material, question witnesses, record statements or conduct searches without it, they said. The central probe agency was roped in by the Ministry of Railways after a preliminary inquiry flagged possible tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, and officials suspected “sabotage” behind the Friday accident.

 

“The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case on the request of the Ministry of Railways, consent of the Odisha government and further orders from DoPT (Government of India) relating to the train accident involving Coromandel Express, Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and a goods train at Bahanaga Bazar in the state of Odisha on 2nd June,” the CBI spokesperson said. The agency, which has limited expertise in handling probes into railway accidents, may need the help of rail security and forensic experts to get to the bottom of the case, the officials said.

 

The CBI took over the FIR registered by the GRP ( Government Railway Police) Cuttack on June 3 under IPC sections 337, 338, 304A (causing death by negligence) and 34 (common intention), and sections 153 (unlawful and negligent action endangering lives of Railway passengers), 154 and 175 (endangering lives) of the Railways Act. The FIR stated many deaths were due to injuries caused due to collision and electrocution after coming in contact with the overhead low-tension line. The overhead wires snapped as coaches which toppled over in the triple train accident brought down electrical poles, officials said. According to the procedure, the CBI re-registers the local police case as its own FIR and starts the probe. It can add or remove a charge from the FIR in its charge sheet filed after its investigation.