Rajkot: The SIT of CID crime investigating the reason behind the massive fire in a go-down in Gondal town of Rajkot district recently has filed booked six persons under section 436 . Of them four are labourers who were doing welding which caused fire. One accused is Mayursinh Dabhi who was looking after the welding process on behalf of owner of Ram Rajya Godown. Another accused is owner of the godown Dinesh Selani. All accused are already in police detention.

According to SIT, Rs 4 lakh contract between GUJCOT and Ram Rajya godown mandated closed godown facility but the godown was not closed. It was an open godown. Groundnut stock arrived during 22-25 January. The godown owner then decided to build tall walls and gate. While construction of wall was safe process because there was no fire involved, the erection of 25-30 ft gate was risky as it involved welding process. A contract for brackets and sliding gate was given a month ago. Power connection for this work and for street lights was taken from neighboring Raghuvinr ginning via underground cable. When welders were cutting the steel sheet, spark caused fire which is not in control even after 10-15 days.

SIT said it took help of Forensic Science Laboratory, police, fire brigade, civil suppy department and reconstructed the sequence. The incident of fire occured on 30th during 3.30 to 4.00 pm. The welders tried to douse the fire but were unsuccesful. The fire spread very fast. One fire fighter arrived in 30 minutes but as it couldn’t douse fire with available water, it left the place to bring water.

SIT said Farmers sold groundnut to yard and then the stock went to mandli which sold it to GUJCOT at MSP and then the stock was stored in godown. Farmers have got their payment, mandli has also got its payment. Custodian of stock lying in Ram Rajya godown was GUJCOT which has insured 28 godowns through New India Insurance company for Rs 165 crore. As no individual was to benefit from this incident, conspiracy and arson angle is ruled out.

The godown owner tried to conceal the details of welding which caused fire. The owner also in initial two-three days tried to hide welding machine etc details.

The SIT said, whether the procured groundnut was poor in quality, whether the procured stock matched with the godown stock, whether a portion of stock disappeared, etc things are being probed. Contract rules were violated by godown owner, such as no closed facility for storage, no security during day-time, security during night time only on paper, no fire fighting facility for flammable stock, non-functional water valve without water etc.

SIT said all mandlis and stock lying there will be checked and cross verification will be done to check whether there’s any irregularity.

DeshGujarat