India’s federal crime agency said Friday (July 07, 2023) it has arrested three railway officials in connection with one of the country’s deadliest train accidents, which killed more than 290 people last month. The arrested men have been charged with culpable homicide without murder and destruction of evidence, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. It identified them as two signal engineers and one technician, and said the investigation is ongoing. Error in signaling system led to train crash that killed 275 people in India, official says June’s train crash in eastern Odisha state occurred when a packed passenger train was mistakenly diverted onto an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a stationary freight train loaded with iron ore. The collision derailed the passenger train’s coaches onto another track where they struck a passing train that was running in the opposite direction. The two passenger trains were carrying more than 2,290 people when the collision took place. Nearly 1,000 people were injured. India’s deadly train crash renews questions over safety as government pushes railway upgrade After the accident, India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the cause of the crash was related to the signaling system. India, a country of 1.42 billion people, has one of the world’s most extensive and complicated railways built during the British colonial era: more than 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) of tracks, 14,000 passenger trains and 8,000 stations. Spread across the country from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, it is also a system that is weakened by decades of mismanagement and neglect. Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year, and most such crashes are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment. Indian officials end rescue work for 2 wrecked passenger trains that killed over 300 people The June crash was India’s deadliest since 1995, when two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people. In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.

Barely 20 days after India's top human rights body recommended a central probe into post-poll violence in the eastern state of West Bengal, the federal government on Tuesday expressed its willingness to take over the investigation. "A federal agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is ready to probe the allegations of post-poll violence in West Bengal," India's additional solicitor general YJ Dastoor told the High Court in state capital Kolkata. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last month made the recommendation for a federal probe in its report to a five-judge High Court bench. It was asked to investigate the allegations of post-poll violence by the same court only. In its report, the Commission clearly accused the Bengal government of turning a blind eye to "grievous offences like murder and rape" allegedly perpetrated by members of Mamata's ruling Trinamool Congress on supporters of the state's opposition BJP. Read: India's human rights body favours federal probe into Bengal post-poll violence "To compound the problem, violence and intimidation has continued. There is palpable fear among victims against police and goons of the ruling party. Many displaced persons haven't yet been able to return to their homes. There have been several sexual offences," it said. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had, however, slammed the NHRC for "leaking the report" at the behest of India's ruling BJP. "The BJP is now using impartial agencies to settle political scores and malign our state," she told the media last month. It may be mentioned here that the High Court, on July 2, came down heavily on the Bengal government for the post-poll violence in the state that claimed a number of lives. "The state is in denial mode. The administration has been caught on the wrong foot," it had said. UNB had earlier reported about as many as 16 deaths in post-poll violence in Bengal, which prompted the Indian Home Ministry to seek a report from the state administration. In fact, on May 6, a day after she was sworn in as the chief minister of Bengal for the third time, Mamata announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each for the families of 16 people killed in post-poll violence in the state. Read: High Court raps Bengal govt again for post-poll violence "At least 16 people -- mostly from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool -- died in post-poll violence. We will pay a compensation of Rs two lakh to their family members," she had said. Appealing for calm, Mamata had also asked her supporters not to indulge in any violence. "Bengal is a peace-loving place. During the elections, there has been some heat and dust and calm. The BJP did a lot of torture. But I appeal to all for calm." Bucking anti-incumbency, Mamata scripted history on May 2 by single-handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election, staving off a massive challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP but also decimated the Left Front. Bengal had witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool rule.

The High Court in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday refused to grant interim bail to two high-ranking ministers in the West Bengal government and two other politicians arrested by the country's top federal probe agency in connection with a high-profile cash-for-favours scam. The four politicians -- serving ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, and former ministers Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee -- were sent to jail on Monday after the High Court, in a late-night order, stayed their bail granted by a special court. They were arrested  by the Central Bureau of Investigation for their alleged role in the Narada tapes scandal. In a related development, the federal probe agency has made Bengal's firebrand woman Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her law minister Moloy Ghatak and her ruling Trinamool Congress party's parliamentarian Kalyan Banerjee in the Narada bribery case and sought the transfer of the hearing to another state. "A bench of the High Court, led by the acting chief justice, has turned down the bail pleas of all the four politicians as well as the prayer of the federal investigators seeking the remand of the accused for custodial interrogation. The court will hear the case again on Thursday," lawyer Sushanto Roy told UNB over the phone from Kolkata. On Monday, high drama unfolded in Kolkata as Mamata staged a five-hour dharna outside the office of the federal probe agency in protest against the "illegal" arrest of her two senior ministers in the Narada tapes scandal case. She had told the media that the state assembly speaker didn't give his mandatory consent to the arrest of the two Ministers. While Firhad and Subrata are Urban Development and Panchayati Raj Ministers, respectively, Madan is a legislator of Mamata's ruling Trinamool Congress party. Sovan, on the other hand, is Kolkata's former Mayor. He left the Trinamool in 2019 to join India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, but quit the outfit before the assembly polls. The two serving and two former Ministers were arrested barely 10 days after Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar approved the CBI's plea to prosecute the four accused in the Narada tapes scandal. The Governor then claimed that his approval "is more than enough" for the arrest of the accused as he had presided over their swearing-in ceremony. "Governor accorded sanction for prosecution... being the appointing authority of ministers @MamataOfficial under article 164 and thus competent authority," he tweeted on May 9. The Narada scandal was a sting operation carried out by a journalist that caught on tape several ministers and senior officials of the erstwhile Mamata government accepting cash bribes in exchange for doling out unofficial favours to a private firm looking to set up business in Bengal. Earlier this month, Mamata scripted history by single handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election. She not only defied anti-incumbency and staved off a huge challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP, but also decimated the Left Front. However, the 66-year-old lost her own seat in Nandigram. Bengal witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday stepped in to probe the television rating points or TRP scam, a case that has reignited the debate on unfair means being adopted by a few media houses in this country for gaining advertisement revenues.

No one killed Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput — he took his own life, a medical report has concluded.