Mumbra accident: Protruding backpack not found during probe, GRP tells court

Additional sessions judge G T Pawar will decide on the pleas on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, in an over hour-long proceedings before the court, the GRP, through its ACP S Shirsat and Additional Public Prosecutor Manisha Pawse, submitted that the CCTV footage of the trains had shown that they were not overcrowded and that the incident had taken place because the engineers had not undertaken maintenance of the track, despite flagging of the requirement of a “track attention”.

The police claim that due to the speed of the train and the gravel displacement under the tracks caused due to the heavy rain, the tracks came closer, causing the commuters to crash into each other, leading to injuries to even some who were inside the trains.

“There is no explanation about why the exterior of the train coaches involved in the accident have friction marks and the windows of both the trains have smashed. We have also not found the backpack in the panchnama done after the accident,” ACP Shirsat told the court. The prosecution said that apart from the report by the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), along with CCTV footage from various railway stations, it was relying on statements of 32 persons, including staffers of the CR, passengers and those who have come forward through WhatsApp, emails, after a public notice was issued seeking information about the accident.

Assistant divisional engineer Vishal Dolas and senior section engineer Samar Yadav, allegedly in-charge of the maintenance of the tracks, have been booked by the GRP for alleged negligence. The two officials, through their lawyer Baldev Rajput, submitted that the court should take into consideration the report submitted after an inquiry by five senior officials, including a senior divisional safety officer, divisional engineers and others, which had said that the incident was caused due to overcrowding.

“We are not questioning the expertise of VJTI…their work is theoretical but the railway report has to be considered as it also is about the practical along with the theoretical. Railway workers are working on the tracks 24×7 for smooth functioning of the trains,” the lawyer said. He told the court that he had visited the spot and submitted photographs, claiming that while the police claim that a flooded culvert due to rains had caused the gravel under the tracks to get displaced, this was over 150 feet away from the spot of the accident.

He also said that during peak hour daily, the Mumbai local trains are overcrowded with many traveling on the footboard.