BHUBANESWAR: The CBI on Friday arrested three railway employees relating to signalling — senior section engineers Arun Kumar Mohanta and Mohammad Amir Khan and technician Pappu Kumar — in connection with the June 2 train tragedy at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district which killed 294 people and injured more than 1,000.
The CBI booked them under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) besides Section 153 of Railways Act, 1989 (wilful omission or neglect endangering safety of railway travellers) virtually ruling out any sabotage angle.

“Though there was no deliberate attempt to cause the disaster, there are tell-tale signs of an attempt to hide the inadequacies and destroy evidence after the tragedy,” a CBI officer said.

A CBI statement confirmed the arrests, adding the investigation continues. The CBI got the medical examination of the three done at Capital Hospital Bhubaneswar and is likely to produce them in a court soon.
“From technical inputs, it’s clear that signaling failure led to the mishap. There were lapses on the part of the three, which resulted in wrong signaling to Coromandel Express. The three were questioned multiple times after the mishap. There were attempts to destroy evidence and mislead,” the CBI sources said.