Nanavati panel urged to order fresh probe into Godhra carnage

Ahmedabad, Dec 16 (UNI) Pointing out ''several lacunae'' in the investigation by the Gujarat police into the Sabarmati Express carnage case of February 2002, a rights body, representing the riot victims, today demanded fresh probe into the incident by experts, who have special knowledge of fire in enclosed spaces.

Making a power-point presentation, before the Nanavati Shah Commission, probing the Godhra case and its fallout, Dr Mukul Sinha, an advocate for the Jan Sangharsh Manch, submitted that the fire in the S6 coach of the train was not a result of a pre-planned conspiracy, but a 'natural flash fire' case.

''The fire could have been a natural flash incident, sparked off by various possibilities. This angle was totally overlooked by the police, which only concentrated on the conspiracy theory,'' he said.

He said the conspiracy theory of the police did not hold ground, as there were no evidence on record to support it. He said initially the police has said kerosene was used from outside but after Mr Noel Parmar took over as the Investigating Officer, he said petrol was used from inside the coach to burn it.

''However, there is no proof in support of this. Not a drop of petrol used by anybody who burnt the S6 coach was found.'' He also pointed out that none of the passengers nor the Godhra SP Raju Bharagava had in their statements to the Commission mentioned any smell or presence of any inflammable liquid or petrol.

Quoting from a book by Rob Aldcorn on fire progress, Dr Sinha said a sudden and sustained transition of a growing compartment fire to a fully developed fire occurs when all of the combustible materials present reach their auto ignition temperature.

''In this case, there was smouldering and smoke for about ten to 15 minutes, before the fire engulfed the coach. That there was only smoke for sometime is known from satements of passengers, who escaped from the compartment,'' he pointed out.

''If the police theory was to believed that 140 litres of petrol was used that day, then the whole train would have been engulfed by the fire and exploded and none of the passengers would have survived. That day, about 70 passengers of the S6 coach had survived the blaze, recieving injuries mostly in the upper parts of the body.

This also proved that there was no fire on the floor of the train,'' he submitted.

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