A man who was declared dead in the Jnaneswari train accident 11 years ago has been detained from his Jorabagan home by the CBI on Saturday.

All these years, his sister had allegedly been engaged in a Central government job that she received as part of the compensation for her brother’s death. His parents are said to have accepted ex-gratia as part of the compensation package.

Based on preliminary findings, officers of the central agency said they had reason to believe that the train accident victim declared dead in May 2010 and whose identity was established through DNA profiling was still alive.

The CBI has drawn up charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and prevention of corruption act, based on a complaint by the South Eastern Railway.

Amritava Chowdhury, his sister Mahua Pathak and their parents Mihir Kumar Chowdhury and Archana Chowdhury have been named in the FIR, and unknown government and private officials have also been kept in the ambit of the FIR.

Metro could not contact the Chowdhury or the Pathak families for their version of the allegations.

Pathak is currently serving in the southern railways as “assistant signal”, Sealdah division.

“We received a complaint from the office of general manager (vigilance), administrative branch of the South Eastern Railway on August 11 last year based on which a discreet inquiry was started. The preliminary findings suggest that the person in question, Amritava Chowdhury, against whose death his family was compensated by the government, is still alive,” said a CBI officer.

At least 148 people had died in the derailment of the Mumbai-bound Jnaneswari Express in West Midnapore on May 28, 2010.

A senior IPS officer, who was posted in West Midnapore when the accident happened, recalled that the bodies had been identified by their relatives or friends by showing adequate identity proof of the deceased and documentary proof to establish their relation with the deceased.

“Only those bodies which were beyond recognition and could not be identified by any of the claimants were made to undergo DNA profiling. The test reports were matched with the DNA samples of those who had come to report that their relative is missing but could not identify him or her in any of the bodies,” the officer said.

In this case, CBI sleuths said, it was apparent that the Chowdhury family in alleged connivance with some government officials had tampered with the DNA profiling report and proved that the DNA of one of the bodies of the victims of the train accident matched with that of their family member’s. A compensatory railway job was offered to his sister on June 16, 2011 while his parents had claimed a compensation of Rs 4 lakh on October 11, 2010.

“The body was handed over to the family after matching the DNA profiling. This means there was some tampering with the DNA report because now we find that the so-called dead person is alive and that body that was handed over to the family was not that of Amritava Chowdhury,” said a CBI officer.

Amritava, who was 27 in 2010, was headed to Mumbai on an official tour when the train accident happened.