Southern Railway scapegoat' engineer's suspension withdrawn
Sources said Mr Francis submitted proofs of messages he had send to his senior officers.
Kochi: The Southern Railways on Wednesday revoked the suspension of senior section engineer Raju Francis on the direction of a four-member Inquiry panel probing Karukutty train derailment after they completed a primary evidence collection and interrogation.
“His suspension was revoked after he deposed that he had inspected the site on July 29 and duly gave a warning to his superiors to take action including exercising caution. The panel members interrogated him and collected documents like telegram copy of the messages. The preliminary probe in his absence was also completed,” a senior official of the engineering department said.
Mr Francis, the section engineer with the Aluva section, was placed under suspension by the Senior Divisional Engineer on August 29, a day after the accident. He was charged with not taking action even after detecting a rail defect in the track portion where the train derailed.
However, Mr Francis claimed that he had informed his seniors about the defects, but no action, including exercising caution was taken. “I tested the location on July 29 and informed my superiors about the defect (OBS). However, they refused to excercise caution stating that these types of defects are common,” he had said.
Sources said Mr Francis submitted proofs of messages he had send to his senior officers. However, the top officials are learnt to be unhappy over his airing unhappiness on social media platforms.
Meanwhile, the official said unnecessary alarm is being raised over the report of ‘202’ spots with rail defects detected in the Thiruvananthapuram-Shoranur section. “The railway board recently changed the classification criteria for increased safety. After the order, more types of defects are now classified under ‘serious nature’ and less under ‘non-serious nature’,” he said.