Odisha train accident: FIR registered; Coromandel loco pilot, his assistant ‘stable’

The FIR has been registered under IPC Sections 337/338 (endangering life or personal safety of others), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 34 (common intention), and Section 153/154/175 (endangering safety) of Railway Act.

The FIR is dated June 3, a day after the accident, and registered on a complaint by Sub-Inspector Papu Kumar Nayak of Balasore GRP station.

Culpability of specific railway employees is not ascertained yet and will be unearthed during the probe, according to the FIR. A sub-divisional railway police officer has been assigned to probe the matter.

Meanwhile, the condition of injured loco pilot of Coromandel Express, Gunanidhi Mohanty, and his assistant, Hajari Behera, is stable, according to doctors of a private hospital where they are undergoing treatment.

Mohanty and Behera were rescued by local residents after Coromandel Express derailed.

Chief public relation officer of South Eastern Railway, Aditya Choudhury, said their condition is stable. He said B J Rao, guard of the goods train parked on the loop line, is also stable and is admitted in the same Bhubaneswar hospital.

Sources said Mohanty has multiple fractures on left rib and is stable after operation. Behera, they said, has left intertrochanteric fracture (a type of hip fracture) and head injuries and is awaiting surgery. Both have been taken out of ICU, and both were conscious when they were admitted in hospital early Saturday morning, it is learnt.

While doctors at the hospital refused to comment on their condition, family members of Mohanty and Behera appealed for privacy and to allow them to recover.

According to sources in the Railways, preliminary statements of both have been recorded about the sequence of events, signalling aspects and other issues. Rao’s statement was also recorded, they said.