Ahmedabad: There is a new twist to the Godhra train carnage case which led to the horrific Gujarat riots in 2002.
The Godhra probe Commission on Saturday said that the unexpected flaring up of a `flash fire' inside the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra might have resulted in the death of 59 persons on February 27, 2002.
"The fire (in the train's coach) did not happen the way the story has been made out to be," Mukul Sinha, an adovocate assisting the two member Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the train carnage and post-Godhra communal riots of 2002 was quoted by new agency PTI as saying.
The Commission, earlier in its interim report, had said the fire aboard coaches S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was an "accident" and ruled out arson by outsiders, alleged by many to be local Muslims.
Sinha added, “Given certain conditions, a small fire can spread very rapidly,” as he presented the `flash fire theory' as a probable cause of fire.
Citing statements made by passengers who survived the blaze inside the ill-fated coach, the advocate was quoted by PTI, "There were two phases of the fire inside the coach - a smoky phase of about 15 minutes and then a sudden fire.”
Sinha also quoted excerpts from a book of an Austrialian fire expert Rob Aldcorn and denied the flash fire theory as, "a sudden and sustained transition of a growing compartment fire to a fully developed fire, occurs when all combustible material present (inside the compartment) reach their auto ignition temperature."
This flash fire theory is very different from stance taken by the investigating officer and Gujarat government who has termed it as `terrorist conspiracy'.
"If 140 litres of petrol had been poured inside the coach and ignited, then in a confined space, it would have created a massive fire", Sinha said adding that most of the doors and windows of the coach were closed due to the stone-pelting from a violent mob.
(With Inputs from PTI)
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