CBI grills jr engr in Bahanaga case

BHUBANESWAR: A CBI team probing the June 2 train tragedy at Bahanaga Bazar interrogated a junior engineer, working with railway signalling, at his rented house in Balasore district's Soro township for several hours on Tuesday amid suspicion of tampering of the signalling system as the reason behind the triple-train accident that killed 292 people.
After ruling out various other possibilities following technical and forensic inputs, the CBI has zeroed in on "human interference in signalling" as the reason behind the accident. The junior engineer, entrusted with signalling work in Soro and Bahanaga Bazar, two adjacent stations, came under the scanner because the signal protocols were found violated, a source said.
Top railway officials familiar with the CBI probe and the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) inquiry said the digital circuit for the interlocking signal was manually bypassed while repairing a breakdown. The restored signal did not match the intended track position leading to the Coromandel Express entering a loop line and crashing on to a stationary iron-ore laden goods train, leading to the tragedy.
A three-member CBI team and the junior engineer, a native of West Bengal, together reached his rented house on Tuesday morning. The CBI team searched his house, questioned him and then left with him in the evening, a source said. The investigative agency had on Monday sealed the engineer's house so that it could be searched in his presence, a CBI source said.
The investigators are trying to ascertain whether the signal was tampered with deliberately or was an act of negligence or an error made in a hurry to give passage to the two long-distance trains on the busy Chennai-Howrah route, an arm of the Golden Quadrilateral. The signal maintenance work was undertaken at Bahanaga hours before the accident.
South Eastern Railway chief public relations officer Aditya Kumar Chaudhary said the investigators of CBI and CRS have been questioning many railway officials as part of their probes to ascertain the truth.
"Wherever the inquiry team is going and whoever is required to be present there, they are going there," Chaudhary said.
While the CBI has already questioned over 20 railway officials regarding the accident, the significant difference in the case of the junior engineer is that his residence was sealed to carry out searches.
Sources said the CBI has been carrying out a simulation to determine the sequence of events leading up to the accident.
The investigative agency has also identified and listed the responsibilities of several individuals, including supervisory and field staff of the railways, as well as the suppliers of various equipment involved in running of the trains.
The officials connected with functioning of Bahanaga Bazar station have been asked to be in constant touch with senior railway officials and be available for questioning by the CBI and CRB as and when required.