Preliminary investigations of the cause of fire at Mantralaya on June 21 suggest that it started accidentally,Crime Branch officers revealed on Thursday. Stating that there was no evidence of foul play so far,sources said CCTV footage retrieved from a hard disk seized shows sparks coming out from the switch rack room on the fourth floor. Officers,however,said they could still not completely rule out any line of investigation,including the possibility of sabotage. From the footage,it is clear that there were some sparks. The fire seems to have spread because of that. We can see the time of the fire from the recordings and investigations suggest the fire may have been an accident, said a Crime Branch officer,requesting anonymity. He said the statements of people,who were present on the blaze-hit floors,have also revealed that they heard some spark-like noise from the switch rack room. Several witnesses said the same thing,which suggests that sparks could have caused the fire. However,we are still awaiting reports from FSL to be sure if the fire originated from the switch rack, said the officer. Until Wednesday,the Crime Branch had recorded statements of 135 people. The police have gone through most of the 86 feeds retrieved from 102 cameras that were installed on the blaze-hit floors. We are going through the recordings. Further details are being probed. Until the FSL and Fire Department reports come,nothing can be ruled out.
