Odisha Police’s ‘Action’ Warning After Tweets Give Communal Spin To Train Accident
The Odisha Police has warned that severe legal action will be taken against those who are trying to give a “communal colour” to the Balasore accident involving three trains on Friday evening that has claimed more than 270 lives so far.
Urging people to desist from spreading “false and ill-motivated posts”, the police said an investigation by the GRP in Odisha into the cause and all other aspects of the accident was underway.
“It has come to notice that some social media handles are mischievously giving communal colour to the tragic train accident at Balasore. This is highly unfortunate. Investigation by the GRP, Odisha into the cause and all other aspects of the accident is going on,” the Odisha Police tweeted on Sunday.
“We appeal to all concerned to desist from circulating such false and ill-motivated posts. Severe legal action will be initiated against those who are trying to create communal disharmony by spreading rumours,” it added.
Image of temple projected as mosque goes viral
The police appeal comes even as images and videos of the Odish train accident are being circulated on social media, with some users trying to give it a communal angle by claiming that a mosque was located near the spot of the accident.
A Twitter user named The Random Indian (@randomsena) shared a picture captured by a drone, showcasing an aerial view of a location. In the image, an arrow is directed towards a white building, which seems to be a mosque. The user accompanied the photo with the following caption: ‘Just Saying Yesterday Was Friday’.
The user made a statement insinuating that Muslims were accountable for the tragedy. The tweet was part of a thread where the user sought to present the train accident as a premeditated attack carried out by Muslims.
According fact-checking website, BOOM FactCheck, the claim that a mosque is located right next to the accident site has been deemed false. The structure highlighted by an arrow in the viral posts is, in fact, an ISKCON temple.
The website, in its fact-check, examined several pictures clicked at the accident site and compared those to the viral image. However, it found in other pictures that the building highlighted in the viral image does not look like a mosque, but shows a temple.
Another fact-check website AltNews said it had reached out to the authorities of the ISKCON temple in Bahanaga who confirmed it that the train accident happened on the tracks near the temple. The authorities also confirmed that the structure seen next to the spot of the accident is the ISKCON temple.
Railways official says error in ‘signalling system’
The derailment was caused by an error in the electronic signalling system that led a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train, railway officials said on Sunday.
Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said the preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line, but the signal later changed, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore. The collision flipped Coromandel Express’s coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side also to derail, she said.