Two days after Monday's train disaster at Sainthia in Birbhum district, the cause of the collision that snuffed out 66 lives still remains a riddle.
The Central Investigation Department will conduct a probe into Monday's train tragedy at Sainthia in West Bengal which left 66 people dead and 89 injured.
The toll in the train collision at Sainthia station in Birbhum district rose to 66 on Tuesday with three injured passengers of the Vananchal Express succumbing to injuries at the Burdwan Medical College Hospital.
Train services on the Khana-Rampurhat section of the Howrah division in Birbhum district, where a high speed express collided with another, were restored on Tuesday.
They have been working tirelessly but silently since the Uttarbanga Express crashed into the Vananchal Express at the Sainthia station in Birbhum district, ferrying the injured, donating blood and helping out in the morgue.
Heavy-duty gas cutters were being brought from Panagarh to extricate people trapped in the mangled coaches of the Vananchal Express which was hit in the rear by the Uttarbanga Express early on Monday morning at the Sainthia station.
The Railways cancelled three trains from Howrah and diverted as many in view of the train accident in Sainthia, which has claimed 60 lives. The cancelled trains include the Howrah-Amritsar and Howrah-Rampurhat-Howrah passenger, according to the Eastern Railway.
Union Minister of Railways Mamta Bannerjee, who is extremely perturbed by the disastrous train mishap in West Bengal early on Monday morning, has asked her ministry to carefully oversee the postmortem of M C Dey, the driver of the New Coochbehar-Sealdah Uttarbanga Express, which rammed into Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express in Sainthia station of Birbhum district, killing 62 people and injuring 92 others.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday suggested CPI(M)'s hand in the train accident in Sainthia and the Jnaneswari Express mishap and ruled out resigning on moral grounds.
Opposition and allies alike slammed Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee for the train collission in Sainthia.
"We have some doubts in our mind. Whatever has happened is not a casual thing. We will take strong steps against those who are behind this," she said.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has regretted the enormous delay in rescue and relief teams reaching the train accident site at Sainthia in West Bengal and said use of helicopters or small planes on such occasions should be looked into.
"Nothing can be ruled out. It may be possible that our equipment might have been tampered with. It will be known only after inquiry)," Eastern Railways General Manager V N Tripathy told PTI.
The driver of the Uttarbanga Express was alerted by the station master that a train was already there on the tracks but he violated the red signal, Rehmat Ali, the signal in-charge of the Sainthia station where the deadly collision took place said on Tuesday.
Preliminary probe into Monday's train mishap has indicated that Uttarbanga Express was moving at a speed of over 60 km per hour, nearly 40 km per hour more than the limit, and overshot the signal resulting in the fatal incident.
In another display of the politics of threat in West Bengal, a ruling Trinamool Congress Member of Legislative Assembly openly threatened to "behead" a Congress leader in Birbhum district.
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