Her ministry’s report awaited, Mamata asks CBI to probe train accident

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New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the railways ministry, headed by Mamata Banerjee, without waiting for the statutory inquiry report of the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) to come out, has sought a CBI inquiry into the October 21 train collision near Mathura in which the Goa Express rammed into the stationary Mewar Express killing 22 persons.

Not just that, the ministry has also asked the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to get the October 27 Rajdhani train hijack investigated saying that the West Bengal government wasn’t expected to do a fair inquiry into the case.

Sources said railway board chairman S S Khurana has recently sent two letters, one to secretary, department of personnel and training, Shantanu Consul, and the other to home secretary G K Pillai seeking a CBI probe into the Mathura train collision and an MHA inquiry into the Rajdhani hijack.

Since the CBI cannot initiate any inquiry without the consent of the state government, it remains to seen how things play out.

On the train collision, the ministry has told the DoPT that the fact that the alarm chain was pulled and the train made to make an unscheduled stop could be part of a “larger conspiracy” and needed to be investigated by the Central agency. The escape bid of an undertrial — being brought to Delhi on a transit warrant by the Kota police onboard the Mewar Express — is being thought to have triggered off a sequence of events that led to the chain being pulled and the Mewar Express being hit.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government is learnt to have asked the railways ministry to provide Railways Protection Force (RPF) escort on all passenger trains passing through the Naxal-dominated areas in the state, even during the day. Currently, RPF escorts select passenger trains having an overnight run. The ministry, however, has said it did not have enough RPF personnel to deploy on all trains.