Ministry of Railways on Wednesday sought the status report of the safety audit it directed to be completed within a week’s time following similar kind of lapses being speculated over the Balasore Train accident that has claimed 288 lives and left scores of passengers with injures.
On its part, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is inquiring into the triple train tragedy in Odisha, collected evidence from the accident site and Bahanga station, where the accident took place on June 2 evening.
Sources said the CBI sleuths, along with the forensic and technical team, examined the main line, loop line, accident site, signalling room and station master’s office. They have examined all employees and seized mobile phones of some of the Railway employees, who were on duty when the accident took place, the source said.
The team is likely to examine the call records, WhatsApp calls, messages and social media usage of the staff during its investigation.
The Railway Board on last Sunday recommended a CBI probe into the tragic accident, in which the death toll has touched 288. A 10-member CBI team had reached Balasore on Monday evening and started investigation into the case from Tuesday.
In addition to the CBI, the Railway Safety Commissioner is also investigating the accident. “Both CBI and Railway Safety Commissioner are conducting their investigations separately and the central agency is collecting required evidence,” said Aditya Kumar Chaudhary, CPRO, South Eastern Railway.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continued to attack the BJP-ruled Centre alleging that there were attempts to suppress the cause of the train accident in Odisha. The CBI was engaged to probe into the June 2 triple train crash but pieces of evidence have already been removed, Banerjee claimed.
The Congress demanded FIR against the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for “Himalayan level of dereliction of duty” and negligence, that led to Balasore train tragedy.
Addressing a Press conference at the AICC headquarters, party spokesperson Dr Ajoy Kumar said, the Government was busy in headline management and saving the Minister who is responsible for the train accident.
Asserting that the Government’s decision to refer the rail accident inquiry to the CBI and weave the conspiracy theories was to divert the public attention, Kumar questioned the logic of the Government to rush to the conclusion that the accident was caused by sabotage without examining other things. “It is like starting chemotherapy of the patient who merely complained of cough”, Dr Ajoy, a doctor himself remarked.
The Congress leader pointed out, even the CBI FIR did not mention the “sabotage” and “conspiracy” words anywhere, thus making it obvious that the government wanted to divert the attention by resorting to conspiracy and sabotage theories.