Monday, January 17 2005 23:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Gandhinagar: Rejecting outright the findings of the Railway Minister-appointed Justice U C Banerjee Commission, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Railway police formed to probe the Godhra train carnage, today (Jan 17, 2005) affirmed its conspiracy angle in the carnage.

Talking to media persons at a hurriedly convened press conference, SIT chief Deputy Inspector General of Police Rakesh Asthana said they have enough evidence to back their "conspiracy theory."

"Our investigation strongly indicates a conspiracy that was hatched at the Aman guest house on February 25, 2002, two days before the train carnage", he added.

Asthana narrated the sequence of events as per the SIT's version and sought to know how could an "accidental fire", as claimed by the Banerjee Commission, spread so much inside a coach?

Asthana said the SIT's probe had revealed that nearly 120 litres of petrol was used to set the S-6 coach ablaze while the State Directorate of Forensic Sciences (DFS) had also conducted detailed tests and said that approximately 60 litres of inflammable and particularly petrol could have been used to torch the coach.

Asthana then gave the example of the fire on board the S-3 coach of the Shanti Express that had caught fire at the Gandhinagar railway station three months ago.

He said that probe by DFS officials had revealed that it was not "accidental fire" and that there was sabotage involved.

The official said that the SIT would continue its probe and try to capture as many of the absconding accused persons, including some members of the core group, at the earliest.

He said that the SIT had so far arrested 104 of the 131 persons accused in the train carnage case and that 92 persons were charge-sheeted in the case so far.