News from Balasore

Interestingly, there was no sign of thunderstorm when the power supply was disconnected. It contradicts the claims of the minister that power supply gets disrupted due to nor'wester.  

In Paradip, a girl died while four persons including her grandparents and a neighbour were critically injured due to electrocution at Balisahi under Kujang police limits.

While Bahanaga residents are organising a memorial service in remembrance of the train tragedy victims, an artist in Odisha has paid tribute to the victims through his smoke art.

A live service wire near Tilottama’s home was broken and had fallen on an iron rod charging it with electricity. Tilottama got electrocuted when she touched the iron rod without knowing that it was charged with a broken service wire.

No trains will make stoppages at Bahanaga bazar railway station, informed the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of South-Eastern Railway.

As per initial reports, the train was stationed at the platform since Friday night. However, as soon as the day broke, some people noticed smoke coming out from one of the wagons.

Aditya Kumar Chaudhary, CPRO, South Eastern Railway said, “There are no dead bodies. We had got site clearance from NDRF twice. Later, after we got complaints over foul smell, a search was again conducted along with state government team.

After the tragedy, the rescue team and local people retrieved passengers’ bodies from the mangled coaches and kept them at the classrooms and open hall of the school. 

The statement from Shinde came when he visited the school premises which was used as a temporary morgue to store the bodies of victims of the triple train crash involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train at Bahanaga Bazar Station in the district.

According to sources, the central probe agency is likely to examine the call records, WhatsApp calls and social media usage of the staff during its investigation.

As per the FIR, a lot of bodies did not have any injury marks on them, so death might have been caused by the snapped power cables on the railway tracks.

The CBI took over the investigation after reaching Balasore on Tuesday. The case was earlier registered at Balasore Government Railway Police Station (GRPS) in Cuttack.

A woman at Bahanaga allegedly claimed ex-gratia money at the Government Railway Police (GRP) station while impersonating as the widowed wife of one of the rail tragedy victims.

According to sources, one Ezekiel Das of Berhampur along with his wife Sumita Das and son George Jaccob Das had boarded Coromandel Express on the fateful day. 

After reaching the accident spot, Railway Safety Commissioner Shailesh Kumar Pathak visited the station signal room, control room and interacted with the officials present there.