Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu orders forensic inquiry into Patna-Indore Express derailment
He assured Lok Sabha members that the guilty would be given 'strict punishment'.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Monday said a forensic inquiry into the Kanpur train accident will be conducted to look into all possible angles. The minister assured Lok Sabha members that the guilty would be given “strict punishment”. The Patna-Indore Express got derailed around 3 am on Sunday near Uttar Pradesh’s Pukhrayan in the Kanpur Dehat district, killing 133 passengers.
Prabhu had announced ex-gratia of Rs 3.5 lakh for families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 compensation for the critically injured. He further said that both the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments were working together on rescue and relief operations.
Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha had said that the accident could have been caused because of a fracture in the rail tracks. Divisional Railway Manager for the Jhansi Division SK Agarwal, on the other had, ruled out the possibility of any foul play. “The Sabarmati Express crossed the same track nine minutes earlier. It would have reported any fault,” he had said. Investigators, however, are tight-lipped on the cause of the incident.