Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said the railway board has recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI into the horrific three-train collision in Odisha's Balasore district on Friday night in which more than 270 people died. Earlier on Sunday, the railways virtually ruled out driver error and system malfunction, indicating a possible "sabotage" and tampering of the electronic interlocking system behind the triple train accident.
Vaishnaw said the "root cause" of the accident and the "criminals" responsible for it have been identified."It happened due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine," he told reporters.Jaya Verma Sinha, a member of operation and business development, of the railway board, said explained how the point machine and the interlocking system function.She said the system is “error proof” and “fail safe” but did not rule out the possibility of outside intervention.