The 2023 train accident in Balasore that claimed 293 lives occurred due to “composite negligence” by the railway authorities, said the Orissa High Court on Tuesday, reported The Hindu.

A single-judge bench of Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra stated that the authorities failed in the upkeep, maintenance, and proper functioning of the signal system at the Bahanaga Road station.

Mohapatra, however, granted conditional bail to three railway officials arrested for alleged negligence, saying there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that they were completely responsible for it.

On June 2, 2023, two coaches of the Yesvantpur-Howrah Express derailed near the Bahanaga Road railway station in Balasore. The derailed coaches came in the path of the speeding Coromandel Express on the adjoining track and collided with it. A goods train was also hit in the process.

Over 900 persons were injured in one of India’s worst train accidents.

Subsequently, the Union Ministry of Railways attributed the accident to lapses in the signalling circuit alteration carried out at the North Signal Goomty of the station, among other reasons.

A goomty is a small cabin or shelter at railway stations and level crossings, typically used to house fixed equipment like lever frames or signalling devices.

On June 6, 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation into the accident. The central agency arrested the three railway officials – senior section engineer Arun Kumar Mahanta, section engineer Mohammad Amir Khan and technician Pappu Kumar – nearly a month later.

The central agency charged all three under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common cause read with the destruction of evidence. It also invoked sections of the Railways Act on endangering the safety of passengers by wilful act or omission.

On Tuesday, the court said that the three railway officials’ “entry into the North Goomty and the tampering with the circuit in North Goomty, which is the bone of contention of the prosecution”, did not conclusively indicate that the officials were solely responsible for the tragedy.

It also noted that the role of the station master at the Bahanaga Road station was not looked into properly by the Central Bureau of Investigation, according to The Hindu.

There was no doubt that the role of the employees in the accident was “shrouded in the clouds of doubt” and “no satisfactory answer” was coming from them, the bench said. “However, at this stage, it cannot be presumed that these petitioners are solely responsible for the alleged tragedy,” it added.

The court noted that the magnitude of the damage caused by the accident was huge. “Therefore, the investigation is required to be broad-based and comprehensive, taking within its sweep the conduct of every officer involved in the signalling system,” it said, according to The Hindu.

Mohapatra also said that railway tragedies were happening frequently due to defective signal systems or failure to maintain the signal systems properly. “These types of incidents, occurring so often, cannot be taken lightly,” he added.

The court said: “It becomes incumbent upon both the railway authorities as well as the investigating agency [CBI] to go deep into the matter and to find out not only the criminal angle involved in the alleged occurrence but also the negligence [if any] on the part of the railway technicians, engineers and executives who are involved in the process of maintenance of railway tracks and signal system.”

Mohapatra noted that the bail was granted to the three employees as the central agency had concluded its probe.

Apart from the accident in Balasore last year, there have been several train other accidents in recent months.

On October 11, at least 13 coaches of the Mysuru-Darbhanga Bagmati Express train derailed after colliding with a stationary goods train in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district. On August 17, at least 22 coaches of the Sabarmati Express derailed near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

No deaths were reported in both accidents.

On July 30, at least two people were killed and 20 others injured when 18 coaches of the Mumbai-Howrah Mail derailed in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district.

The accident occurred when the train collided with a stationary goods train in the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway.

On June 17, a goods train derailed in West Bengal. A day later, a passenger train collided with a goods train in Uttar Pradesh, killing a total of 12 persons.