Unhappy with Tundla report, Mamata orders magisterial probe

The Railways Minister reportedly felt the report had discrepancies, for one failing to identify the contractor given the job to dismantle the shed structure at Tundla on September 2. If culpability is fixed following a magisterial probe, a criminal case might even be registered against the contractor and the officials.

“The fact that the inquiry committee glossed over the fact that the contract had been awarded for the dismantling work angered her. She felt that all facts of the accident had not come to light,” an official said. Moreover, the earlier inquiry report had exonerated all the officials and blamed the collapse on the vibrations of a goods train.

The officials had been indicted only by the second report. Even in this report, there was no mention of the chief engineer but only an oblique reference that certain decisions could not have been taken by the field officers on their own.

On her return from Calcutta last week, she pulled up members of the inquiry committee and ordered a magisterial probe, sources disclosed. The inquiry committee comprises R.L. Malik, Additional Member (Projects); S.R. Ujlayan, Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), Northern Railway; A.K. Yog, Senior Executive Director (Civil Engineering), Lucknow; and R.N. Aga, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Northern Railway.