Press Trust of India Posted online: Friday, February 09, 2007 at 1852 hours IST
Ahmedabad, February 9: Comparing the burning pattern of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express train with World Trade Centre (WTC) disaster in the US, the Gujarat government counsel told the Godhra Commission that huge amount of fuel had ignited the fire which killed 59 karsevaks on February 27, 2002 near Godhra railway station.
Giving a power-point presentation to the Nanavati-Shah Commission, probing the carnage and the riots that followed, advocate Sumit Shah said, "the fire inside the coach (of the train) can be compared to the WTC fire."
"Here canisters filled with petrol were used to burn the coach and there (at WTC) an aeroplane filled with petrol was used," Shah said while showing photographs of the terrorist strike on twin-towers in New York on September 11, 2002.
Shah was trying to counter the ‘flash over fire’ theory presented by advocate Mukul Sinha of the Jan Sangarsh Manch that claimed that ‘given certain conditions, a small fire can spread very rapidly’.
Choosing to describe the blaze in S-6 as ‘a malicious fire initiated after thoughtful planning’, Shah argued that the train coach was not a air-tight and confined space which could have given rise to a flash-over fire.
"Several windows of the coach were broken in the stone pelting," he said.
"The bogie had not burnt equally or identically throughout. This itself indicates that a flashover or backdraft had not occurred'', Shah said.
"If a flash over had occurred, all passengers would have been burnt to death. But here, many managed to come out unscathed and several others escaped with minor injuries," he argued.
"Hence it was a normal fire which spread rapidly after coming in contact with the fuel," Shah said adding samples examined by Forensic Science Laboratory experts had confirmed the presence of petrol.
The advocate also cited the FSL report which had examined the 38 samples collected on February 27, 2002, the day of the incident.
"The presence of petroleum hydrocarbons was detected in 27 samples while petrol was found in two," Shah said.
"Two samples had presence of Hydrocholoric Acid (HCL)," he added.
Shah contended that the plastic carboys (containers) in which 140 litres of petrol was brought could have melted at high temperatures inside the S-6 coach.
"Traces of carboys were not detected because they could have melted and evaporated at such high temperatures," he said.
"The carboys might have been taken back by the culprits after emptying the contents into the train compartment," Shah remarked.
He also presented an animated reconstruction of the train carnage as per the 'conspiracy theory' of Gujarat government.
