The state government has refused to give its consent to a CBI probe into the derailment of the Gyaneswari Express, which led to the death of 148 persons. Terming the accident as a “political conspiracy”, railway minister Mamata Banerjee had asked for a CBI enquiry on Saturday. The ministry of home affairs sought the views of the state government regarding the CBI probe after receiving Ms Banerjee’s request.
“The state government feels that there is no need for a CBI probe specially when a CID inquiry has been started. The CID probe has also made considerable progress,” state home secretary Samar Ghosh said.
The state government believes that there is no need for a parallel inquiry (read CBI enquiry) when a CID probe has been progressing well and this view was communicated to the MHA. State director general of police Bhupinder Singh said, “We have got a fair amount of clues in the inquiry.”
Earlier, on Sunday, a communiqué from the MHA came to the state chief secretary’s office seeking the state government’s view and consent about a CBI probe into the accident as suggested by the ministry of railways. According to the Section-VI of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, the consent of a state government is mandatory for a CBI probe. The high court can also order for a CBI enquiry. This is for the first time in West Bengal that state CID has been engaged to probe into a train accident. On being asked about the reasons to rope in CID to probe into this accident, Mr Ghosh said, “Actually the commission of railway safety probes the cause of any train accident. However, since subversive activities were involved in this accident, the state government has ordered the CID probe.” However, he was unable to give a time frame by when the CID would complete the investigation.
Ms Banerjee had alleged a deep-rooted political conspiracy behind the train accident. Reacting to the state government’s refusal to the CBI probe, Union minister of state for health and Dinesh Trivedi wanted to know what was the state government afraid of.