The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday formally took charge of investigation of the Jnaneswari Express derailment case from the State's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) here.
Though the CBI had registered the case on Wednesday, it could not be officially handed over to the agency by the government as no CBI representative team had formally approached the CID.
A two-member team of the CBI – comprising Keshav Kumar, Joint Director, and Arun Bothra, Superintendent of the Special Crime Branch - visited the CID headquarters and also met the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and the Director-General of Police on Thursday.
Formalities discussed
Apart from taking charge of the case, the CBI officials discussed the legal formalities to be completed before handing over the evidences, documents and custody of the arrested persons and also requested the State police's assistance during the probe.
Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh, said: “The State government has received the terms of reference for the CBI investigation. The probe has been formally handed over to the CBI. The officials asked for the State police's assistance and we have assured them of it. Most of the evidences and documents like case records, seizure list and case diary have been handed over to the CBI during the day.”
Asked about the transfer of custody of the four arrested persons to the CBI, Mr. Singh said that the process would be completed once approved by the court.
A second CBI team also visited the office of the Divisional Railway Manager (Kharagpur) on the day. “It was a general introduction meeting where the CBI officials requested the Railway authorities to provide them infrastructural support. We have assured them that we will assist them in every possible way during the investigation,” Anil Handa, DRM (Kharagpur), said.
‘No new section'
A CBI spokesperson told The Hindu from New Delhi over telephone that no new section had been added to the case registered by the agency and it was more or less based on the first information report on the basis of which the CID was conducting investigations.
The case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Railways Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
