M A I N   N E W S

Railways begins hunt for clues
Naveen S. Garewal
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 16
Clueless about the cause of the fire that killed 38 persons aboard the Golden Temple Mail on yesterday, the Indian Railways has started an inquiry to ascertain the cause that set fire to three bogies of the train. Claims and counter-claims by various agencies investigating into the cause of the fire have been rubbished by senior officers of the probe team that arrived here today.

The Commissioner Railway Security, Mr Bhupinder Singh, told “The Tribune” soon after starting the investigations that the Railway authorities would be in a position to disclose their findings only after the probe is complete. He said, “The exact cause of the fire will be known only after the investigations are completed and that will include taking into account the findings of the forensic experts. Till this happens, we cannot rule out any possibility.”

The investigating team that arrived here earlier in the day has taken many samples from the three fire-ravaged compartments. “Junction boxes of the electrical circuits have been sealed and are being taken away for laboratory examinations,” a team member disclosed.

The team spent about one and a half hours looking for clues inside the three coaches and took dozens of samples that they feel could bring out the truth behind the cause of the tragedy.

In reply to a question about what was the expected outcome of the inquiry, Mr Bhupinder Singh said, “We are totally clueless at this juncture. But after the lab reports come and eyewitness are examined, we will be nearer to truth.”

The damaged compartments have been extensively videographed. The samples picked up from the train include what is being speculated to be pieces of a burst stove. The investigators have, however, neither confirmed nor denied this.

Sources said the probe that was supposed to start on May 18 started a day earlier on the initiative of Mr Bhupinder Singh, who is the inquiry officer-designate. This is believed to have been done in order to meet the eyewitnesses before they disperse.

Mr Bhupinder Singh visited the victims admitted in both Christian Medical College and Hospital and Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and monitored the recording of statements of the injured.

A senior team member said, “We did not want to lose any vital clue, so we decided to conduct the inquiry from today itself.” He said the team was aiming at submitting a comprehensive report of the finding in about two weeks. The fact-finding team, he said, would study various aspects connected with the accident.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the AIG Railways, Mr S.S Bawa, today met some Border Security Force (BSF) personnel who were travelling in the ill-fated train. Among those questioned was Head Constable Ravinder Kumar, who lost his two children. The Head Constable has reportedly made a statement before the investigating team that the fire was first seen coming out of a bag left by a passenger, who disembarked at Ludhiana railway station, pointing a finger towards sabotage.

So far, however, there are not many takers of the theory that a stove burst is the cause of the fire. The BSF authorities, too, have denied that any of their personnel were travelling in the train with a stove. Mr H.C. Gupta, Railway Board Member (Safety), had propounded the stove burst theory, but retracted when Railway Minister Nitish Kumar rebuffed him.

Did a bag cause the fire?
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 16
Putting a question mark over all theories regarding the cause of the fire in the Frontier Mail yesterday, BSF Head Constable Ravinder Kumar gave a statement before the Government Railway Police here today that a large bag on berth 30 in the S-4 bogey was the first thing that caught fire.

“The berth on which the bag was kept was occupied by an unidentified man till the train stopped at the Ludhiana railway station. I woke up and disembarked from the train. When I returned, there was a large black bag on the berth, but there was no sign of the man,” he stated.

Mr Rajinder Kumar, admitted to the Christian Medical College here, along with his wife Sangeeta, lost both his children Nitin (8) and Mahima (4) in the fire. He saved a number of children by pushing them off the train, but could not rescue his children.

His statement was recorded by railway officials today after doctors allowed the police to record the statements of the injured. The police personnel wrote down sequence of events as stated by the injured.

The Head Constable said he saw smoke emanating from the bag, but did not see any sparks or hear any blast. Mr Anil Kumar, another passenger, said he also saw smoke emanating from the bag. Before they could do anything, the bag was engulfed in flames and the fire spread in a few seconds.

Government Railway Police officials said though they doubted the sequence of events as narrated by the Head Constable they had decided to examine. “It has put the entire incident in a new perspective,” an official said.

The chance of sabotage had been ruled out. So far, it was being believed that a stove burst had caused the fire. It was also being suspected that a cigarette butt might have caused the fire.

The stove burst theory was being doubted on the grounds that who would light a stove a few minutes after the train had left the Ludhiana railway station after a halt for 15 or 20 minutes. There were also reports that some person had lit the stove to heat rajmah. Reports claimed that a utensil in which the rajmah was being heated had been traced and seized by forensic experts.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr Ravinder Kumar said an unknown passenger tried to pick up the burning bag to throw it out, but his hands were burnt when he tried to touch it. By then, the fire had spread in the compartment.

“I rushed out to open the doors, but the space near one door was blocked by trunks and bags. The bogey was soon engulfed in fire and smoke,” he recollected. He said he was unaware as to what happened to the man who burnt his hands while trying to lift the bag.

Mr Anil Kumar, said he did not hear any explosion or see any sparks. He saw that the bag was burning and thick smoke had engulfed the compartment. “It all happened within seconds. No one knew what to do,” he said.

Railway officials said it was unlikely that a bag had caused the fire as the passengers would have had enough time to extinguish the fire. Experts said there was no chance of sabotage and there was no explosion in the train. It was possible that a short circuit had caused sparks and fire in the bag, but it was mystery how it spread so fast, they stated.

Mass cremation today
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 16
The district administration has proposed a mass cremation of the bodies that remain unidentified till tomorrow afternoon. It decided to put off the cremation, scheduled for today, as many relatives of those suspected to be among the deceased were still arriving here.

Sources in the district administration said it would be hard to delay the cremation further. A total of 28 of the 38 victims had been identified. Most of the bodies identified had been taken away by relatives for cremation. Members of the family of Lance Naik Veenu Kumar were assisted by the Army authorities in flying his body to Kerala.

Most of the deceased were travelling to Amritsar for taking a holy dip at the Golden Temple on the occasion of sakranti. Others were Army or BSF personnel.

The Railways paid compensation to the injured and relatives of the deceased today besides depositing money with local hospital authorities for the treatment of the injured. Money for food for the injured was deposited in the hospitals. The Railways also provided the injured with clothes.

Mr G.K. Gupta, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer, said the Railways paid Rs 1 lakh to the kin of the deceased, Rs 15,000 to the seriously injured and Rs 5,000 to those who had received simple injuries.

The railway police registered a case under Sections 436, 304, 426 and 427 of the IPC. Police sources said they would incorporate the names of the accused if investigations found some person responsible for causing the fire. It also sent parts of a stove and some other material found burnt in the fire to forensic experts.

The list of the deceased who have been identified is as follows: Dr Sister Alfansa (Maqsoodan), Betty (Kerala), Joney (Kerala), Toni (Kerala), Ganpati Shivaji Vinayak (Maharashtra), Surinder Singh (Delhi), Paramjit Singh, Parshotam Lal (Amritsar), Asha Rani (Amritsar), Draupadi (Maharashtra), Manisha (Maharashtra), Sakha Ram (Maharashtra), Gotia (Maharashtra), Aditi Bhatia (Delhi), Mahima (Bagpat), Nitin (Bagpat) Vishnu Kumar (Thiruvanathapuram), Karam Kaur (Gurdaspur), Veenu Kumar (Kerala), Jai Gopal (Amritsar), Harish Vaswani (Jabalpur), Nisha Vaswani (Jabalpur), Sonam (Jabalpur), Sumit (Jabalpur), Kishore (Jabalpur), Rupinderjit Kaur (Sultanpur Lodhi), Jaskaran Singh (Sultanpur Lodhi) and Kashmira Singh (Sultanpur Lodhi).

TRAIN FIRE
‘Teeth helped’ in identifying body
Tribune Reporters

Amritsar, May 16
“The only vital clue to identification was the gold teeth. The body was so charred as to defy any other means of identification” said a stunned family member of Jai Gopal Mehra (60), a textile merchant, who perished in the Frontier Mail fire early yesterday.

Even as the family was unable to come to terms with the tragedy, the charred remains of the body were cremated today.

Mr Vipul Mehra and Mr Nitin, son and nephew respectively, of deceased while talking to The Tribune from Ludhiana said the deceased was carrying more Rs 2 lakh in cash in a briefcase, which was identified by its camouflage cover clinging to burnt currency notes by the family members.

Meanwhile, gloom descended at the local Army headquarters when bodies of Maratha Regiment Havildar Ganpati Shivaji Vinayak (30) and his mother, were brought here from Ludhiana where they died in the Frontier Mail fire .

The inconsolable wife of Havildar Shivaji said she had boarded the train, along with her husband and his mother, besides their two children from Mumbai to Amritsar where he was currently posted. Brig Jasbir Singh told The Tribune that the bodies were kept in the mortuary of the military hospital. He said that in view of Shivaji wife’s wishes the cremation would take place on May 18 with full military honours.

Family sources of Havildar Shivaji said that Shivaji and his family were booked in S-4 compartment, which was engulfed by the fire. Shivaji managed to save his wife and two children but was trapped while trying to rescue his mother still trapped inside in the bogey.

Late last night bodies of two more victims Asha Rani, resident of Golden Avenue and Parshottam Grover of the Bhagtanwala area, were cremated late last night at the Durgiana Mandir cremation ground after obtaining special permission from head, Durgiana Committee, Mr Surinder Arjun, on compassionate grounds. Even as these cremations were conducted contrary to religious customs after ‘dusk’, hundreds of mourners had gathered at the cremation ground. Family members said that the bodies were badly burnt, hence identification was through the set of teeth of both the deceased.

Meeting on rail mishap
Our Correspondent

Amritsar, May 16
A marathon high-level meeting on preventing rail mishaps was held at the railway station here today.

Those attending the meeting sought to reinforce precautions, safety measures, punctuality and accident preparedness. Notice was taken of lapses by the railway authorities. These included the failure to check the presence of inflammable items in the Frontier Mail.

Notice was also taken of the blocking of the space for walking in the train with luggage. The fact that a large number of passengers were travelling on unreserved tickets was taken note of.

Two empty compartments were attached to the Shan-e-Punjab, which would carry the bodies of two train fire victims from Ludhiana to Delhi. The Howrah Mail arrived seven hours behind schedule and the Flying Mail was 13 hours late.

SGPC gesture to train victims
Our Correspondent

Phagwara, May 16
All gurdwaras under the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) will organise “akhand path” and “ardas” for the peace of departed souls in yesterday’s train mishap at Laddowal.

Stating this here this afternoon, Prof Kirpal Singh Badungar, SGPC President, said the ‘akhand paths’ would start on May 23 and the “bhogs” would be organised on May 25.

The SGPC was giving all help to the passengers and a round-the-clock langar was going on at Alamgir gurdwara, Prof Badungar claimed. It would give other required support to the stranded passengers.