RAYAGADA: A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reached here on Sunday to further probe the Hirakhand Express train accident that claimed 41 lives and left many injured. The seven-member team from New Delhi, led by Inspector General Mukesh Singh, will investigate the sabotage angle in the midnight mishap at Kuneru on the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border. Before their arrival in the town, the team visited the accident spot.
They also held a meeting at Circuit House here with other officials of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The meeting was attended by NIA SP, Hyderabad LR Kumar, Railway Protection Force SP Simoshi Bajpayee, Assistant Director AK Mittal of NIA, Kumar Viswas Roy, Additional SP of NIA and Rayagada SP K Siba
Subramani.Earlier, night patrolling staff A Rama Rao and Venkat Ramana had denied any fault on the tracks as a goods train had passed on the same tracks 20 minutes before the incident. Sources said the NIA team will camp at Rayagada for a couple a days.