The mystery of Monday’s train collision at the Sainthia railway station West Bengal has deepened. With the railways having floated the theory that the loco pilots of the Uttar Banga Express which rammed into the Vananchal Express could’ve been drugged, the case is becoming curiouser and curiouser.
Amidst various kinds of speculation on what led to one train colliding with another despite the numerous safety measures that the railways has in place to prevent such mishaps, the latest theory doing the rounds is whether the loco pilot and assistant loco pilot were drugged.
While this will be known only after the inquiry into the mishap is completed, a railway union has jumped in to demand a CBI probe into the collision.
The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) demanded on Wednesday that there be a CBI investigation to this accident. Interestingly, railway minister Mamata Banerjee while addressing a party rally in Kolkata too reiterated her “sabotage” theory.
While the actual cause of the accident may only be known after the statutory inquiry in completed, what is mystifying and intriguing the railways is what happened in a short stretch of 7.5 kilometres.
It is the distance between Gadadharpur railway station, the last station where the Uttar Banga Express had halted before it sped to the next station at Sainthia and collided with the Vananchal Express.
Shiva Gopal Sharma, general secretary of the AIRF, handed a memorandum on behalf of the union to Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai on Wednesday seeking a CBI probe. For according to him, “Why would any driver go on a suicide mission like this when just a few minutes ago, he was alert?”
Mr Sharma did admit that very often loco pilots do duty far beyond the prescribed number of hours.