Amid growing suspicions of sabotage behind the derailment of Hirakhand Express in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, the National Investigation Agency and the State CID officials on Monday swung into action to probe the accident.
A team of Andhra Pradesh CID sleuths, led by Additional Director General of Police Dwarka Tirumala Rao, visited the scene of the accident near Koneru Railway station in Vizianagaram district bordering Odisha in which 41 people were killed and more than 50 were injured.
The death toll mounted after two more bodies were recovered from one of the badly-damaged bogies on Monday morning.
The train was going from Raigad to Bhubaneswar when it derailed in the wee hours of Sunday.
Railway authorities were suspecting foul play as the mishap occurred in a Maoist affected region and a 15 inch gap was found at a place where two tracks join.
Apart from the probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, the Union Government has ordered a probe by the NIA and the Andhra Pradesh Government ordered the CID to investigate the reasons behind the mishap.
Eight of the victims of the derailment belonged to Vizianagaram while most of others were from Odisha.
The investigations were being carried out from all the possible angles, said a senior official of the State CID.
Foul play was also suspected behind the other two train accidents recently in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.