Kolkata, May 31: The toll in the West Bengal train tragedy rose to 148 on Sunday as more bodies were pulled out from the wreckage of the mangled coaches.
“ All bodies from the spot have been recovered. Train services along the route resumed at 2.50 am this ( Sunday) morning,” South Eastern Railway’s Kharagpur divisional manager Anil Handa said.
District magistrate N. S. Nigam and hospital sources have put the toll at 148.
All trains plying in the Sardiha and Khemasuli route in Jhargram in West Midnapore district, about 135 km from Kolkata, will now have a speed limit of 15 km per hour at night, Handa said.
Around 145 passengers were being treated in hospitals in Midnapore, Kharagpur and Kolkata, he said. On Friday, 13 coaches of the Mumbai- bound Gnaneswari Express from Howrah derailed, of which five fell on the opposite tracks and were smashed by a goods train.
A six- member CID team, led by additional director general Raj Kanojia, and accompanied by forensic experts, visited the site and inspected the 400- metre stretch of the damaged railway track.
“ It is a case of sabotage.
Planned attacks on the railways have been going on in this area for quite some time. The railway line was cut. But without a forensic report, we cannot say whether there was an explosion or not,” Kanojia said.
The railways, on the other hand, have decided to file a fresh complaint with specific charges of murder and conspiracy against unknown persons.
Earlier, they lodged an FIR mentioning the word sabotage and not murder and conspiracy. “ We have informed the Jhargram police regarding this,” additional DGP ( railways) Dilip Mitra said.
Amid allegations that a faction of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities ( PCPA) was responsible for the derailment, the Maoist- backed organisation on Sunday disowned any hand and charged the ruling CPM in the state with hatching a plot. “ We have no intention to target trains and we condemn and mourn such a colossal loss of civilian lives,” PCPA convener Asit Mahato said.
“ We have proof that four CPM leaders in Jhargram are involved in removing the pin reel clips from the track. Recently, the CPM has opened several camps at Dahimara, Patri, Burjuli and Kolai villages close to Sardiha where the express train derailed,” he added.
He was reacting to the state police’s claim that two members of the PCPA, recently released on bail, were involved in the derailment. Mahato said: “ Politically- motivated statements are being issued to separate us from the masses.” But state DGP Bhupinder Singh said: “ It is a handiwork of the PCPA activists and we have evidence against them. We have asked the railways to provide details of the linemen who were on duty that day.”
—Agencies