The Odisha Police have filed charges of criminal negligence in the Balasore triple train collision even as a CBI probe has been ordered into it. The FIR by the state police does not name any specific person(s), though.
Cases have been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Railway Act. The registration of these cases by the Odisha police is procedural and required for further investigations.
Two passenger trains and one goods train were involved in a three-train collision on June 2 evening at Balasore in Odisha that led to 275 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. The incident, dubbed one of the worst train accidents so far in the country, is said to have been caused by a failure in the electronic interlocking system.
Charges in the IPC include causing harm to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others (Sections 337 and 338); causing the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide (Section 304A); and a criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention (Section 34).
A senior police officer told businessline that the case was registered in response to the FIR filed by a sub-inspector of the government railway police. The complaint alleged that this was a cognizable offence.
Meanwhile, the statutory probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, Southern Circle, has also begun in Kharagpur, West Bengal. A parallel CBI probe was ordered on Sunday evening.