A fresh lease of life spread across the twin tracks in Sardiha as trains started plying on them, two days after they were made to witness unprecedented loss of life and property. With the remains of the ripped coaches sans any life lying along the tracks, the scarred memories however, are there to stay for some more time.
“The restoration work of both the affected tracks has been completed. At first, we passed a goods train through the UP line at 6.10 am.
Thereafter, train services through these tracks have almost been normalised, except for some speed limitations,” said superintendent of railway police (Kharagpur) Shankar Chakraborty.
It was the same UP line whose fishplates had been removed by suspected Maoists on Thursday night, resulting in the derailment of the Mumbai bound Gyaneswari Express. The final blow had come minutes later as it was hit by a goods train that sped from the opposite direction on the adjoining down line. The down line has also been restored by Sunday morning. As trains reluctantly paced through the tracks (at a speed of 15 km per hour), anxious eyes peered from inside. Hit by the unmistakable stench, most had their noses covered and eyes glued to the gory remains of a train that was identical to the one that was carrying them.
The area otherwise bore a deserted look except for a few people — some railway officials working near the tracks with their faces masked to fight the stench and some relatives of the missing persons, still searching for clues of life in the lifeless remains of the coaches. “My wife Indu Batra and daughter Sneha are untraceable. I have searched for them in the hospitals. They are not even in the morgue. I am sure there is some miracle waiting for me,” said a hopeful Rajesh Batra, examining a pair of jeans that he claimed was that of Sneha, a Class 12 student of Don Bosco, Liluah. A green coloured bag, stuffed with half-eaten kachauri (snacks) only substantiated his claims. “I had brought these Kachauri from Haldiram,” added Rajesh, looking for someone who could help him take out his wife’s purse from the dump of torn clothes, bags, seats and human flesh and blood that remained in coach. “There are no volunteers today,” he complained. Members of another family had the same complaint. “Now that the coaches have been cleared, there is no one to help us take out the belongings of our near and dear ones,” alleged Azizul Gazi. Gazi had five of his family members travelling in the fateful train. Bodies of three of them have been found.
The search for the remaining two is on.
On being asked about the lack of rescue workers who, till Saturday night were seen working against time, SRP Kharagpur said, “Technically speaking, the rescue operation is over. All the bodies have been removed from the coaches. The goods and belongings of the passengers have also been taken out. Relatives of the deceased persons can collect them from the Kharagpur GRP police station.” “These coaches will be auctioned later as scrap iron,” he added.
Finally ignoring the stench of rotten flesh that dominated the area despite the bleaching powder, some relatives themselves dug through the remains of their kins. Some came out with bundle full of bidis while one person looked satisfied after recovering Rs 5,000 cash from the purse of his missing wife.
Later in the day, a team of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), headed by additional director general of police (CID) Raj Kanojia, visited the spot. “We are investigating the matter. It certainly seems to be a case of sabotage. However, whether there was a blast or not will be ascertained only after the forensic tests,” said Mr Kanojia.
Meanwhile, a prayer to lodge a murder complaint against “unknown” has been submitted before the Jhargram court on Sunday. “The initial FIR was based on the statement of the driver of the passenger train. However, his statement has not been able to substantiate the incident. There had been a huge loss of life. So we asked the OC Jhargram GRP Abhijit Heit to submit a prayer before the Jhargram court to register a murder case,”said additional director general of police (railways) Dilip Mitra.