Fifteen bodies have been identified and handed over to the next of kin of those killed in Saturday's derailment of the Bangalore Express in Ramalingayapalli, Andhra Pradesh, official sources said.

A sum of Rs15,000 each has been given to the relatives of 30 critically injured passengers, the sources said.

Meanwhile, a controversy has erupted over the cause of the accident.

"It is a planned act of a Naxalite group. The track was cut using hacksaw blades and the damaged portion was covered with a piece of cloth," South Central Railway General Manager S M Singla told the Press Trust of India.

Four or five hacksaw blades were found near the track, he said. The iron filings found under the tracks were smooth. Had it been a normal break its texture would have been granule-like, he added.

But police sources said a fault in the newly laid track could have led to the mishap. Besides, they said no group has claimed responsibility for it.

The repair work has been suspended following the controversy and forensic experts on Sunday morning collected fresh samples of metallic powder of the tracks and the damaged rails.

An official of the forensic team from Secunderabad said a chemical analysis and simulation test of the powder could throw light on the cause of the mishap.

Another top railway official, who did not want to be identified, dismissed as "politically-motivated" the charge that "substandard track" was responsible for derailment of the train.

A Railway Board official said the engine of the train passed off the "cut tracks" to a distance of 200 metres but six coaches next to it rolled down the mini culvert due to the jerk.

He said the engine weighing 130 tonnes withstood the jerks but the coaches weighing 22 tonnes each could not.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety will hold a statutory enquiry into the mishap at Guntakal on Monday.

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