Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora Sunday said Additional Director General of Police (Railways) Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota will conduct an inquiry into the Amritsar train accident to fix responsibility.
There has been “negligence” on someone’s part and this probe has been ordered to fix accountability, the DGP told media persons on the sidelines of the 59th Police Commemoration Day parade.
Arora said it was a tragic incident and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has already ordered a magisterial probe under Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar, B Purusartha, who would submit a report within four weeks.
He said ADGP Sahota would also conduct an inquiry to ensure that those responsible for the accident are nailed.
At least 59 people were killed Friday evening after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching the burning of a Ravana effigy was run over by a train near Joda Phatak here.
At least 300 people were watching the ‘Ravana dahan’ at a ground adjacent to railway tracks.
Over 40 hours after the accident, protesters were cleared off the tracks and services resumed on Sunday afternoon, a railway spokesperson said. The railways got the clearance from local authorities at 12:30 pm, the spokesperson said.
“The first goods train started from Manawala to Amritsar at 1416 hours,” said Northern Railways spokesperson Deepak Kumar. This train will be followed by mail/express trains, he said.
Despite resumption of train services, the railways cancelled 17 trains , short-terminated 14 and diverted seven on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the Punjab Police removed the protesters from the tracks who were staging a sit-in.
First Published: Oct 21, 2018 18:23 IST
Source: HindustanTimes