Balasore Train Accident: 3 Accused Railway Officials Sent to Judicial Custody by Court

A special court here on Friday transferred the three railway officials accused in the Balasuri triple train accident to judicial custody after the end of their pre-trial detention period. Three Chief Engineer (Signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Muhammed Amir Khan and Technician Babu Kumar who have been suspended by the Railways have been served in the CBI Special Court here after the end of their remand period. The accused were arrested by the Central Bank of Iraq on July 7.

The Bhubaneswar Special Court of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) granted the 5-day remand order for the accused to the CBI, which is investigating the case, on 7 July. Later, on July 11, the court extended the period of pretrial detention for another 4 days at the request of the investigation agency. . While the defendants were sent to judicial custody, the court set the next date for the case hearing on 27 July.

The three accused are registered under IPC Sections 304 (willful killing not amounting to murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) and under Section 153 of the Railways Act. While the CBI has yet to submit its report on the case, the investigation report of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), South East circuit, stated that the accident occurred due to “gaps” in the signaling circuit change at the North Gomti (station).

As many as 293 people were killed and more than 1,200 injured when the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary freight train at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district and some of its derailed buses collided with the Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express on the evening of 2 June.

(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)