Train driver files complaint against 'miscreants'

The FIR is being taken seriously in the backdrop of contradictions over the actual cause of the train’s derailment, which took place in the early hours of Friday between Sardiha and Khemasuli railway stations near Kolkata.

Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee, had said on Friday that there was a blast before the derailment. State police officials countered this saying it was a case of sabotage as fishplates were removed and the track was found missing for over one-and-a-half feet.

In his FIR, driver B K Das claimed he remembered having heard a blast under the engine and smoke billowing out, prior to the derailment. The train gave a jerk, forcing him to apply emergency brakes, but that did little to avert derailment of 13 out of 24 coaches. Das and his assistant driver, Niranjan Singh, later saw another train coming from the opposite direction on the other track. But despite all efforts of its driver to stop, the goods train hurtled down the track, flipping five coaches over the down line.

Rescue efforts

It is almost a war at the accident site for the rescue workers, who are working round-the-clock scouring the wreckage. As the stench of decaying bodies filled the air at Sardiha village, they fished out more bodies, taking the total death toll to 141. The second class sleeper coach is so wrecked that even after 36 hours of the mishap, rescue workers have only partially managed to enter it.

Authorities kept spraying bleaching powder to prevent spread of any disease among the rescue workers.  “The bodies are rotting in the wreckage. And it is 36 hours since the accident,” said a rescue worker.