Senior railway officials say former overstepped its mandate by booking the two engineers; accused’s lawyers say crowding to blame for accident; Central Railway (CR) Additional General Manager Prateek Goswami met the state chief secretary on Friday and briefed him
The site of the Mumbra train accident, which took place on June 9. File pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Did the Government Railway Police (GRP) break protocol by filing an FIR against Central government employees when they were first supposed to take the state government or senior officials into confidence and obtain the approvals and consent?
Central Railway (CR) Additional General Manager Prateek Goswami met the state chief secretary on Friday and briefed him on how the GRP had allegedly overstepped its mandate and filed an FIR against railway engineers who happen to be Central government employees.
“There is a set system in place, and such matters proceed according to protocol. There have been clear lapses in filing the FIR,” a senior official said.
Asked whether the police had sought permission from the chief secretary before registering the FIR against the engineers, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central GRP) Pradnya Jedge declined to comment, stating that she was not willing to speak on the matter. Despite repeated attempts, Commissioner of Police for Railways M Rakesh Kalasagar did not respond to calls from mid-day, while the Director General of Police, Railways, Prashant Burde, declined to comment, citing health issues.
Engineers’ bail plea
The accused in the Mumbra train accident case, railway engineers Vishal Dolas and Samar Yadav, appeared before the Thane court on Friday for the hearing of their anticipatory bail pleas. After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Ganesh Pawar directed that the matter be taken up again on November 11, leaving the two Central Railway engineers without interim protection from arrest.
Dolas and Yadav had moved the court after an FIR was registered against them based on a technical report that highlighted lapses in maintenance, waterlogging issues, and improper welding work near the sharp curve outside Mumbra station, where the deadly fall incident occurred, leading to five deaths.
During the hearing, their lawyers placed a CR report before the court claiming that overcrowding, not engineering failure, had caused the mishap. The prosecution maintained that critical warnings on track safety were ignored. The CSMT GRP said they had registered an accidental death report in connection with the incident, and that no offence had been registered so far.
DefenceSpeak
Advocates Baldev Rajput and Priyanka Dable, who are representing Dolas and Yadav, told mid-day that the accident did not occur due to any lapse on the part of the applicants, but because of overcrowded trains. They also submitted that before registering the offence against both engineers, the police did not obtain permission from any senior railway officer.
Nov 11
Day hearing of engineers’ bail pleas will resume
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