Railways talks about sabotage, eyewitness too

Even, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Bhupender Singh, who’s completed his four-day inquiry at the station, did not rule out such a possibility.

Meanwhile, the probe team has picked up fresh specimen from the debris, including a nylon saree and a glass bottle, after it was found that the smoke had started from this heap.

Mehta, who was contacted by the Railway Police, said: ‘‘I deal with waste, and burning all kind of stuff is part of my daily work, but the smoke which filled our bogie that day was of a nature I’d never encountered before. Those who were sleeping never shrieked, no one ran for escape, the smoke simply consumed them.’’

He said: ‘‘I was on my berth No 62 and was trying to go back to sleep after having woken up at Ludhiana Railway Station. Suddenly, I saw smoke and three men sneak out to the next coach with their heads down. I woke up my wife, who was sleeping on seat no 55 and asked her to follow me. The train had halted by then, but she could not make it, and when I went back inside to get her, the smoke nearly killed me. I managed to come out just in time,’’he said.

Today, Mehta was called by GRP at the railway station. He was also called up by a railway official from Ferozepur to report at Delhi before the commission of inquiry going into the episode of May 15, but Mehta has expressed his unavailability since he has to perform the last rites of his wife, Asha Mehta.

Asked whether he would be able to recognise the three men, Mehta was not sure since it was still dark outside. ‘‘But they were definitely there, and I did not see them thereafter”, he said. Incidentally, there is also a difference between his version and the police’s on where the fire started.

Railways, meanwhile, have burnt down two more coaches of Frontier Mail, trying to figure out the cause of the fire. And by the entire exercise they are driving at the conclusion that it was sabotage which could have caused the fire. And also attempting to give a clean chit to their coaches, which they claim are ‘‘adequately fire resistant.’’

Sources said that Bhupinder Singh tried his best to simulate the exact conditions of the fire but did not succeed in completely burning down the coaches to their shells. The simulation was done near the Ludhiana railway station.

‘‘Kersosene was sprinkled on the coach and high-speed pedestal fans were used to create the right wind velocity. The train had been travelling at about 90 kmph when it caught fire. The fire had encompassed three coaches within 10 minutes. So Singh tried to create the exact conditions but the coach was only partially burnt,’’ disclosed railway sources.

Not satisfied with the result, and also wanting to see the reaction if inflammable material was kept inside the coach, Singh set fire the second coach after putting kerosene soaked rags and cotton in it.

‘‘This time the fire was definitely stronger but still not as fierce as the accident. The coach was not burnt down to its shell,’’ sources added.

Though the CRS is supposed to give his report within 10 days of the accident, railway authorities have already started hinting at the possibility of sabotage.

‘‘Singh had also spoken to the kin of some of the victims. One constable, who lost his two children in the fire, told him that he had seen a bag lying inside S-4 coach and smoke was coming out of it,’’ a senior official said.