Rajkot:

The CID crime team has started investigating the case of massive fire in a go-down in Gondal town of Rajkot district. There was around Rs 30 crore worth of groundnut stock in this godown purchased at Minimum Support Price(MSP) from farmers. Fire is still not doused.

CID crime is interrogating four persons including a local welder and his aides who have reportedly informed that the fire was caused by the spark during welding of an iron roof of the warehouse situated on Umvada road in the town.

Meanwhile, a fire officer said that around 11 fire fighting vehicles were continuously involved in dousing operation but as groundnut contains significant oil proportion and the go-down was stacked with around 2 lac sacks of groundnut, it might take at least 5 to 6 days to douse the fire completely.

A police official today said that the welder has said that he and his aides tried to douse the fire by themselves first but when it took a larger proportion, the fire brigade was informed.

The police official said that the statement has been taken but it was being investigated in detail. ‘We can’t believe anything as it was a big incident in which groundnut worth around 28 crores was gutted. It has various angles involved. The fire was still on and might take 10 more days for complete dousing. Still the version has been recorded and it would be matched with the whole sequence of events and other reports before reaching out to any conclusion,’ he said.

Meanwhile DIG of CID-Crime Dipankar Trivedi,who was supervising the investigation, along with Rajkot Rural SP Antrip Sood and collector Vikrant Pandey had earlier addressed a press conference in Gondal today.

Trivedi said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with 2 DySPs and 4 PIs to investigate the matter has been formed. He said that the continuing fire was also hampering the investigation to some extent. He said that detailed interrogation from various people including the warehouse manager and the heads of the farmers cooperative groups those who had kept the groundnut in the Ramrajya go-down where the fire had taken place.

He also said that the FSL report regarding the incident which would be helpful in ensuring whether or not the incident was an act of arson was yet to come. The CCTV footage of the area around the place of occurrence was also being collected.

The incident of fire has raised many eyebrows as it has happened days after reports of scam in groundnut procurement in the area. Reports of mixing of soil in groundnut had also emerged.

DeshGujarat