Police open criminal case over Odisha train disaster

Police in the Indian state of Odisha have registered a criminal case of “death by negligence” relating to the train collision last Friday that killed 275 people, as critics accused the government of trying to shift blame for the disaster.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

The report filed by police did not name any person as responsible but stated that “culpability of specific railway employees has not been ascertained, which will be unearthed during the investigation”.

According to preliminary reports, it was a signal failure that led the Coromandel Express train to switch tracks from the main line onto the loop line last Friday evening, where a stationary freight train was filled with heavy iron ore.

The trains collided at such force that carriages from the express, which was carrying more than 1,000 passengers, flipped onto the opposite tracks and derailed the oncoming Howrah superfast express train, with devastating consequences.

A massive rescue operation, involving the national disaster response force and hundreds of volunteers, continued for two days to pull survivors and bodies from the wreckage. Since then, relatives have struggled to locate the bodies of their loved ones, many of whom were badly disfigured.