Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has granted conditional bail to three individuals accused in the tragic Bahanaga train accident that occurred in June 2023. The incident, which involved a collision between the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, and a goods train near Bahanaga Bazar station, resulted in the deaths of nearly 300 passengers and left over 1,200 injured.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested the three railway employees—Arun Kumar Mahanta, Md. Amir Khan, and Pappu Kumar—on charges of negligence and destruction of evidence. Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra, presiding over the case, ordered their release on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 each, along with two local solvent sureties of the same amount.
The court imposed several conditions on their bail, including restrictions on their posting within the same division where the accident occurred, regular appearances before the trial court, and prohibitions against tampering with evidence or leaving the country without prior permission. The high-level inquiry into the accident had identified wrong signalling and multiple lapses in the Signal and Telecommunications (S&T) department as the primary causes of the tragedy.
