‘Gyaneswari mishap due to sabotage’
An official inquiry into the Gyaneswari Exp-ress accident on May 28 in West Bengal, in which 150 lives were lost, has termed “sabotage” as the main cause for one of the mishap in recent railway history.
An official statement issued on Thursday stated that an inquiry report submitted to the railway ministry has found that “the accident had occurred due to tampering of track, including removal of elastic rail clips and disturbance of cross level.” The preliminary inquiry into one of the worst rail accident in the country, in the past few years, was conducted by commissioner railway safety S. Nayak of the Kolkata-based South Eastern Circle of the Indian Railways.
Official sources stated that the commissioner railway safety has submitted his preliminary report to the Central government. “The cause of the accident is attributed to and certified as sabotage,” the inquiry report goes on to add.
“Having carefully considered all the evidence tendered, records produced, observations, site inspection and circumstantial evidence, I have come to the conclusion that derailment of Gyaneswari Express followed by collision with a goods train coming from opposite direction on May 28 was caused due to tampering of track, including the removal of elastic clips and disturbance of cross level,” Mr Nayak says in the inquiry report.
The tragedy occurred when the Howrah-Mumbai Gyaneswari Express derailed and hit a goods train coming from the opposite direction between Khemsuli and Sardiha station in Kharagpur division on May 28, killing 150 people. Forty six passengers were severely injured while another 111 received minor injuries. After the accident, railways had stopped operations of passenger trains between 10 pm to 5 am on the Kharagpur-Tata section.
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