New Delhi/IBNS: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday arrested three employees of the Indian Railways in connection with the horrific train accident in Odisha's Balasore last month that killed more than 293 people and left over 1,000 injured.

The central probe agency was probing the possibility of a criminal conspiracy that led to the accident.

The arrested men -- Senior Section Engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar -- have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and destruction of evidence.

According to reports, it was revealed during the investigation that the actions of these three led to the accident as "they had knowledge" that their actions would result in this tragedy but not the 'intent'.

The Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) probing the accident had last week flagged the human error of workers in the signalling department responsible for the three-train tragedy, dismissing the likelihood of sabotage or a technical glitch, or a machine fault.

The CRS had reportedly highlighted negligence on the part of a few ground officials who did not follow adequate safety procedures of inspection, particularly after changes were made in the design due to safety concerns three years ago.

The General Manager of South Eastern Railway, Archana Joshi, was recently removed from her post almost a month after the three-train accident, and Anil Kumar Mishra took over the role.

Three trains - Kolkata-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, and a goods train - were involved in one of the worst railway tragedies in the country in the last two decades.