Mumbai: The Thane sessions court on Wednesday deferred its order on the anticipatory bail pleas of two accused Central Railway (CR) engineers in connection with the June 9 Mumbra train accident, in which five commuters lost their lives and several others were injured.
Additional sessions judge GT Pawar is likely to pronounce the verdict on Thursday.
The accused-assistant divisional engineer Vishal Dolas and senior section engineer Samar Yadav-were booked on November 1 by the Thane Government Railway Police (GRP) under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 125(a)(b) (acts endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The case stems from the June 9 accident between Diva and Mumbra stations, where two overcrowded suburban trains crossed each other on a sharp curve. Several commuters standing on the footboards collided, fell onto the tracks and were crushed. Five people died, and at least eight were injured in the accident.
During the hearing in court on Tuesday, the GRP alleged that the CR engineers failed to repair a damaged section of railway track between Mumbra and Diva, despite multiple caution orders issued to them between March and June. The prosecution also pointed out several discrepancies in the defence’s submissions.
The court had directed the defence to submit CCTV footage from the accident site, including clips showing trains simultaneously crossing at the location. Judge Pawar also observed that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) is responsible for crowd management at stations and on trains.
The prosecution contested the defence’s claim that the mishap was triggered by commuters’ protruding backpacks, noting that no such bags were recovered during the GRP’s panchnama.
However, the railway authorities stated that they have video evidence of passengers falling with backpacks. On Wednesday, the defence presented CCTV footage supporting their argument, showing backpacks lying on the platform and railway tracks immediately after the accident.
The videos “clearly show victims wearing these shoulder bags or lying next to them on rail tracks,” said a CR official. The footage also shows passengers fallen on the tracks between the Up and Down lines close to Mumbra station, as well as railway police attending to them, the official added.
The defence further presented footage of 28 trains crossing each other in opposite directions between 7.50 am and 11.40 pm on the same day. The footage was submitted to show that the trains hadn’t come dangerously close to each other, as none of the passengers seen in the video brushed against each other.
CR’s internal inquiry had earlier concluded that protruding backpacks of passengers hanging on the footboards narrowed the gap between them to just 0.75 metres, likely triggering the accident.
The defence also submitted a letter from a June 20 meeting between the GRP and railway ministry officials in New Delhi, which recorded instructions from the railway minister to install automatic doors on Mumbai suburban trains and implement crowd-monitoring and footfall-management measures following the Mumbra incident.