Family says still not allowed to meet train driver

“Everyone in the village thinks my son is responsible for the accident. But he has been piloting trains for the past 27 years, and had never, ever, made a mistake. How do I know what happened that evening? I have not even spoken to my son

- Debabrata Mohanty

CUTTACK: I have only been waiting for him to come home,” says an irate 80-year-old Bishnu Charan Mohanty.

On June 2, Gunanidhi Mohanty was piloting the Coromandel Express, from Kharagpur to Bhubaneswar, when at Bahanaga Bazaar in Balasore, the train switched to a “loop line” where there was a stationary goods train, colliding into it. The impact derailed several compartments, some of which strayed onto the path of the onrushing Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express, that crashed into them.

In a matter of seconds, just before 7pm, Gunanidhi had become part of India’s worst rail accident for three decades, leaving 291 dead, and over 1,100 injured. One of the injured is Gunanidhi himself, admitted to the AMRI hospital in Bhubaneswar with three broken ribs, and head injuries. Since then, former army man Bishnu Charan has waited for his son to return.