M A I N   N E W S

Accident victims left in lurch
n A goods train overshoots red signal to ram into stationary passenger express
n Liquor bottles found in station master’s chamber; probe ordered

Rescuers inspect a mangled train compartment after a crash in Shivpuri district of MP on Monday. — AFP

Shivpuri (MP), September 20
All Railway employees, including the Station Master of the Badarwas Railway Station in Madhya Pradesh near Guna, are reported to have abandoned their posts early on Monday morning after a goods train rammed into the stationary Indore-Gwalior Inter-City Express. Twenty passengers were killed and 50 injured, according to the Railways.

While the head-on collision is being attributed to heavy rain and poor visibility, the Bhopal Divisional Railway Manager Ghanshyam Singh told PTI that the staff were indeed found missing at the station after the accident. RPF personnel, he said, had been directed to search for them.

The Station Master, who had apparently fled the scene, was traced later in the day and his blood sample was collected to ascertain reports that liquor bottles were found in his chamber. The DRM said that an inquiry had been ordered into the accident, adding action would be taken against those found guilty. The accident took place around 4.45 am when the freight train of North-Central Railway entered the wrong track and hit the stationary passenger train head on. — PTI