Thaindian News

Giridih (Jharkhand), Nov 23 (IANS) Contradicting the sabotage theory, police here Wednesday ruled out any foul play in the Howrah-Dehradun Express train fire after visiting the two burnt airconditioned coaches and meeting victims and other passengers.

Superintendent of Police A.V. Homkar told IANS: “The forensic team will speak further on the issue but from what we know, the incident yesterday (Tuesday) took place because someone moved the knob of the AC and the heater was turned on. Later, fire from a short circuit burnt the heated coach quickly.”

Speaking about Tuesday’s fire that claimed seven lives and injured over a dozen in Giridih district, union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi had said that one passenger reported seeing a man boarding the train “carrying a bag that emitted a foul smell and smoke” and leaving it in one of the coaches.

The fire, he said, had broken out soon after that, as the train travelled between Nimiaghat and Parasnath stations in Giridih.

But Homkar said: “We visited the site and met victims and no one said such a thing.”

P.K. Srivastava, railway superintendent of police (Dhanbad), also denied the possibility of foul play.

“No such thing came to our knowledge when we met victims and other passengers. No one aired such suspicions,” he told IANS.

Some survivors also said that before the incident they had told the ticket examiner and attendants that they were feeling suffocated but no one acted on it.

Among the seven killed, two were children and one was an Australian woman.

Survivors also say the rescue team reached the spot almost two hours after the incident, having made their way from Dhanbad station.

The nearest station was Parasnath and next to that the closest was Gomoh - it takes less then 10 minutes to reach the spot from these two places. But neither had a rescue team that could handle a burning coach, and therefore Dhanbad was called in.

Gomoh is where the two badly burnt B1 and B2 airconditioned three-tier coaches of the train are now parked.