Balasore Crash: Three officials charged in 2023; Case still stuck

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, last September, filed a charge sheet against three Railway employees, including two engineers and a technician, in connection with the June 2 Balasore train accident last year, which had claimed over 290 lives.

The trio was arrested by the agency in July last year. Those charge sheeted were the then senior section engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, the then section engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and the then technician Pappu Kumar. All three were posted in Balasore district of Odisha.

The trio was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence with common intention and endangering the safety of persons travelling by Railways by wilful act or omission. The charge sheet was filed by the CBI in the court of Special Judicial Magistrate, Bhubaneswar. As per available information, the case is still hanging fire in the trial court.


The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case on June 6, 2023, from the Railway Police in Odisha. The agency had re-registered the FIR, originally registered by the Railway Police, on charges of "negligence not amounting to culpable homicide", among other sections, under the IPC and the Railways Act.