The Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union has welcomed the Odisha High Court’s decision to grant bail to all the three accused persons of the Balasore triple train accident of June 2, 2023. “We came to know from our office bearers in Odisha that the High Court has granted bail to all the three accused persons of Balasore train accident on Tuesday. The Union welcomes the decision,” Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary of the Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU), said.
Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary, IRSTMU)
Kedar Nath Tripathy, a lawyer who appeared for one of the accused person’s Mohammad Amir Khan, also confirmed that the three accused persons have been granted bail, however, he doubted their release from jail before Diwali due to legal formalities. “The Court pronounced the grant of bail order on Tuesday. Now the certified copies of the orders have to be submitted to the CBI court to get release orders from jail.
The three accused persons from the S&T Department – Mohammad Amir Khan, Arun Kumar Mahanta and Pappu Yadav – were arrested on July 7, 2023 almost a month after the accident, by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly causing the death of passengers and destroying evidence.
While Mohanta and Yadav were posted as Senior Section Engineer (signal) (in-charge) and technician respectively at Balasore, Khan worked as Senior Section Engineer (Signal) at Solo near Balasore. Meanwhile, Prakash, while expressing hope for their early release, said, “I plead to the Hon’ble High Court as well as the CBI court to complete the legal formalities as soon as possible so that the three accused persons can be released on bail before Diwali so that they can celebrate with their respective families.”
“They have been in jail for more than a year. The Commissioner of Railway Safety in its report said that it happened due to human error,” Prakash added. The accident took place near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore in which 293 people were killed — 287 died on the spot or were brought dead to hospital, while six succumbed to injuries during treatment.
The accident involved three trains, namely, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a stationary goods train. According to CBI, Mahanta was reportedly part of the initial probe carried out by the national transporter in which he is understood to have denied any failure in the signalling department with regard to the accident.
A high-level railway inquiry had found “wrong signalling” to be the main reason for the 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 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 non-supply of station-specific approved circuit diagram for the works to replace the electric lifting barrier at level crossing gate 94 at the Bahanaga Bazar station was a “wrong step that led to wrong wiring”.
It said a team of field supervisors modified the wiring diagram and failed to replicate it.
The report also said there was a similar incident on May 16, 2022 at Bankranayabaz station in the Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway on account of wrong wiring and cable fault. “Had corrective measures been taken, after this incident, to address the issue of wrong wiring, the accident at BNBR would not have taken place,” it added.
At least 275 people were killed in the triple train accident in Balasore. Three trains— Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah super fast and a goods train — were involved in crash, now being described as one of India’s worst train accidents. The Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches at 7 pm on June 2. A few coaches of Coromandel toppled over the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express which was passing by at the same time.
