Following the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on February 15, the Union Ministry of Railways on Tuesday replaced five officials, including the Delhi Divisional Railway Manager and Assistant Security Commissioner of the Railway Protection Force, PTI reported.

The Additional Divisional Railway Manager, along with the Station Director of New Delhi Railway Station and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, were also transferred.

The stampede, which took place amid a surge in passengers going to the Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj, led to 18 deaths and left many injured.

In separate orders issued on Tuesday, the Railway Board said that Divisional Railway Manager Sukhwinder Singh, Additional Divisional Railway Manager Vikram Singh Rana and Assistant Security Commissioner of the Railway Protection Force Mahesh Chand Saini had been transferred.

The order said that Singh, appointed to the post in July 2023, will be replaced by Pushpesh R Tripathi from the North Central Railway Zone, PTI reported. Singh’s two-year term was set to end later this year.

Tripathi was serving as Chief Electrical Loco Engineer in the North Central Railway, The Indian Express reported.

Rana was replaced by senior official Samir Kumar and Saini by Chetan Diliprao Jichkar, currently the Assistant Security Commissioner in the Kota Division of the West Central Railway, according to PTI.

A joint order was issued by the Northern Railway for the transfer of Station Director Mahesh Yadav and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Anand Mohan. While Yadav has been replaced by Laxmi Kant Bansal, Nishant Narayan will take over Mohan’s position, PTI reported.

Bansal is currently Deputy Chief Operations Manager (Coaching) at the Railway headquarters and Narayan is Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Freight Services.

The new postings of all the five officials have not been yet announced.

The transfers were necessary for a fair investigation into the stampede, The Indian Express quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying.

“There are allegations regarding mismanagement of the crowd on their part,” the official said. “So it was important to transfer them…The stampede investigation is progressing and a report will come out soon.”