Authorities recommended on Sunday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probes major criminal cases, open an investigation into the crash.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday hit out at former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi for alleging “meticulous conspiracy” behind the Odisha train accident that killed 275 people and injured hundreds, saying he is “desperately trying to impress the BJP leadership so he can keep his Lutyens Delhi bungalow.”
Top Bengal BJP leader Dinesh Trivedi, who was the railway minister for a brief period in 2011-12 after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee quit the position to become the West Bengal chief minister, alleged serious manipulation in the interlocking system that forced the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express off the main track to the loop line.
“Now with more findings coming up, I am more than 100% sure that this crash was caused by sabotage and not a mere accident,” Trivedi told News18.
Trivedi argued that another system called ‘fail-safe’ gets activated if the interlocking system goes haywire and all signals on the specific track turn red.
“To me, it seems like extensive planning and calculation leading to such incidents happening one after another in a matter of a few seconds,” he said.
Without taking any name, Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, tweeted: “A former Railway minister, who held office for 7 months and later defected to BJP, is coming up with cock-n-bull theories about the horrific Odisha accident.”
“He is desperately trying to impress the BJP leadership so he can keep his Lutyens Delhi bungalow, which he hasn’t vacated even after ceasing to be a MP 18 months ago. Pathetic!”
Meanwhile, the Railway Board has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the train accident, Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday evening and suggested that authorities were looking into a possible sabotage attempt.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising objections to the CBI probe request.