Odisha Police's Stern Warning On Giving Communal Colour To Train Tragedy

The Odisha Police on Sunday warned the people who are giving communal colour to the Balasore train crash incident.

"It has come to notice that some social media handles are mischievously giving communal colour to the tragic train accident at Balasore. This is highly unfortunate," Odisha Police said on Twitter. It also appealed to people not to circulate false information doing rounds on social media posts.

"Investigation by the GRP, Odisha into the cause and all other aspects of the accident is going on. We appeal to all concerned to desist from circulating such false and ill-motivated posts. Severe legal action will be initiated against those who are trying to create communal disharmony by spreading rumours," the statement from the Odisha Police read.

This comes after pictures and videos went viral in which some miscreants tried to give a communal colour to the tragedy. In one of the fake pictures, it was alleged that there was a mosque near to the accident site and it was the handy work of Muslims.

In a photo, an arrow was directed towards a white building, giving the impression that it was a mosque with the caption - Just Saying Yesterday Was Friday.

However, fact-checkers have discovered that there is an ISKON Temple and not mosques.

The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train occurred around 7 PM on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar.

Meanwhile, the railways on Sunday said the Coromandel Express was "not over-speeding" and received the green signal to enter a loop line on which a goods train was stationary, virtually clearing its driver of any role behind the accident that killed 288 people in Odisha's Balasore district.

"Green signal means that in every way the driver knows that his path ahead is clear and he can go forward with his permitted maximum speed. The permitted speed at this section was 130 kmph and he was running his train at 128 kmph which we have confirmed from loco logs," she said.

Two key officials of the Railway Board -- Principal Executive Director of Signalling Sandeep Mathur and Member of Operation and Business Development Jaya Varma Sinha -- said the functioning of the interlocking system which prima facie seemed to have been part of the problem which led to the accident.