A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, accompanied by forensic experts, on Tuesday examined the site of the June 2 train accident involving the Coromandel Express, the Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and a goods train at Odisha’s Bahanaga Bazar, which has claimed 288 lives and left more than 1,200 injured.
Editorial | Tragic track: on the Balasore train accident and corrective measures by the Indian Railways
The officials inspected the damaged coaches of the two passenger trains and made enquiries about the signalling system at the Bahanaga Bazar railway station, given that preliminary findings have indicated that a signalling error may have been the cause of the collision. They sought the relevant documents and asked for data-logger records. Some officials also visited the Balasore railway station to collect evidence.
In Delhi, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held multiple meetings with senior officials to review the rail safety measures being taken across the country. By Tuesday evening, more than 70 trains had passed through the tracks at the Bahanaga Bazar station that were restored on Sunday night, under his personal supervision.
CBI takes over
Following a reference from the Railways Ministry and the State government’s consent, the CBI re-registered the case on Tuesday. Sections 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304 A (causing death by negligence), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, besides the associated Railways Act provisions have been invoked.
Earlier, based on a complaint from Sub-Inspector of Police Papu Kumar Naik, the First Information Report was registered at the Balasore Government Railway police station alleging that “negligence” led to the incident. “At present, culpability of specific railway employees is not ascertained, which will be unearthed during investigation,” it said.
DNA sampling
While investigations are under way to determine the reason behind the accident, there is an ongoing struggle to correctly identify and hand over the bodies of those who died in the crash to their grieving relatives. Four days after the deadly collision, 83 unidentified bodies are still lying unclaimed in different facilities in Odisha’s capital.
“For 83 yet-to-be identified bodies, we are following due medico-legal process such as examining DNA samples. We have received a large number of calls on our toll-free numbers from different parts of India and are facilitating their identification here. The process is on,” Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said.
“We are doing DNA samplings. If anyone comes at a later stage, he or she has to submit DNA samples and if samples match, the body will be handed over,” he added.
Identification mismatch
Already, in the midst of the chaos, there have been allegations of remains being wrongly identified or handed over. In some cases, there has allegedly been a mismatch between the number assigned to bodies and the photographs maintained by the State government, in other cases, there have been multiple claimants for a single body, or even bodies being handed over before the arrival of the rightful claimant.
On Monday, four people staked their claim on one body at the AMRI Hospital. Two claimants later backed out, saying that they had made a mistake in identifying the photo, but two others submitted their DNA samples to see which of them had successfully found the remains of their departed kin. They are yet to recieve the results.
At AIIMS, Bhubanesar, West Bengal resident Fani Mandal was exhausted by the red tape of grief. “We have been visiting one place to another for the last four days but have not been able to receive the body of our brother-in-law Nitam Ray (27),” he said. “We had identified him in photo but are not being allowed to see the body,” he added.
As the bodies have started to decompose, relatives are finding it difficult to search for birth marks or scars whch would prove the identity of their dead kin. Authorities are left with only option: DNA sampling.
Revised death toll
Mr. Jena also gave a detailed account of the number of deaths that had occurred in the accident. Until the evening of June 5, the death toll stood at 275.
“Odisha government has [carried out] a combing operation up to 200 metres on both sides of the railway tracks to ascertain if any person or dead body is available. The Balasore district administration also did a thorough check up of all the records of bodies recovered from tracks and compared with records of first collection centres, district-level hospitals and the facility of the North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry which was converted into a makeshift mortuary,” he said.
“After reconciling all these records, the district administration has submitted its final report pegging the death figure at 288. Of the 288 bodies, 95 bodies have been identified and handed over to kin. As many as 193 bodies have been sent to different mortuaries in Bhubaneswar. Out of 193, as many as 110 bodies have been identified at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and other facilities, leaving 83 bodies to be handed over or identified,” he added.
