On Tuesday, the Orissa High Court approved conditional bail for three individuals implicated in the tragic train accident in Balasore district, Odisha, which resulted in over 290 fatalities.
The individuals, identified as Mohammad Amir Khan, Arun Kumar Mahanta, and Pappu Yadav, were taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 7, 2023, for alleged negligence that contributed to the train collision.
Mahanta served as the senior section engineer-in-charge and technician in Balasore at the time of the incident, while Khan was a senior section engineer in the nearby Soro region.
A single-judge bench, presided over by Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra, granted their release on the condition of posting a bail bond of Rs 50,000 each, along with two local solvent sureties of the same amount.
The court outlined six additional conditions, one of which prohibits the railway authorities from assigning the accused to their headquarters in the division where the accident occurred.
The collision, which took place on June 2, 2023, involved the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, the Bengaluru-Howrah Super Fast Express, and a goods train, resulting in at least 296 deaths and over 1,200 injuries.
A comprehensive railway inquiry attributed the primary cause of the accident to “wrong signaling” and highlighted “lapses at multiple levels” within the signaling and telecommunications department. The report also suggested that the disaster could have been prevented if prior warnings had been adequately reported.
