Report of Forensic Science Laboratory, State of Gujarat

Crime Against Humanity 
Volume I An inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat 
List of Incidents and Evidence 
By Concerned Citizens Tribunal -Gujarat 2002
Incidents of Post-Godhra Violence

Annexure 14 
Report of Forensic Science Laboratory, State of Gujarat

New Mental Corner, Ahmedabad --16.

Spot investigation report No.2 regarding CR No. 9/2002. Godhra Railway Police StationA team of forensic experts had visited the place of offence on 3/5/2002 in which alongwith the under signed, Shri AN Joshi, Scientific Officer, Ahmedabad was included. In order torecreate the real picture of how the offence was committed on the day of incident, one coachof the train was kept on the same spot. With the help of different types of containers experi-mental demonstrations were also carried out by using liquids inside the said coach. On the basisof which the following conclusions were made.

1.It was found that the height of the window of the coach was around 7 ft. from theground at the place. Under this circumstance, it was not possible to throw any inflammablefluid inside from outside the coach from any bucket or carboy, because by doing this, most of the fluid was getting thrown outside. At the place of the incidents there was one heap of gritof three feet height at a distance of around 14-ft. in the southern side of the coach. Water wasthrown on the windows of the coach with the help of bucket standing on the top of the saidheap, in that case only about 10 to 15% of the water went inside and the rest of the quantitywas spilled outside itself. Thus if the inflammable fluid is thrown from outside then major partof it would fall around the track outside and catch fire and cause damage to the outer part ofbottom side of the coach. But after examination of the coach and the track, no effect wasfound of the fire on bottom side below the windows of the coach. By taking in to consideration this fact and also the burning pattern of the outer side of the coach, a conclusion can bedrawn that no inflammable fluid had been thrown inside from outside of the coach.

2. There also appears to be no possibility that any inflammable liquid was thrown throughthe door of the bogie.

3. By standing in the passage between the compartment of the bogey and the northern sidedoor of the eastern side of the bogie, water was poured towards the western side from acontainer with a wide mouth like a bucket; in that case most part of the bogie was coveredwith 60 liters of water. By pouring the water in this manner, the water went only towards theWest and no part of it came out of the door nor did it go towards the latrine side.

4. On the basis of the above experimental demonstration such a conclusion can be drawnthat 60 liters of inflammable liquid was poured towards the western side by using a widemouthed container by standing on the passage between the northern side door of the easternside of the S-6 coach and the compartment of seat No. 72 and coach was set on fire immediately thereafter. If the period after the train had started from Godhra Railway Station, intensityof fire, the degree of burn of the objects that were inside the bogie etc. are taken into account,it can also be concluded that a large quantity (around 60 liters) of highly inflammable fluid wasused to set the aforesaid fire and that the fire had spread very rapidly.

Sd/- 
Dr. M S Dahiya 
Assistant Director 
(Seal)

Spot investigation report No. 1 regarding CR No. 9/2/2002. 
Godhra Railway Police Station

The forensic experts had visited the place of offence on 1/5/2002. In the team of theexperts along with the undersigned, the other experts were Shri AR Vaghela, Scientific Officer,Vadodara, Shri Yogesh Patel, Scientific Officer (Mobile), Panchmahal and Shri SI Desai, Pho-tographer, Surat. The experts have made detailed investigation of the burnt down S-6 coachof the Sabarmati Express train. The said coach was kept in the yard of Godhra railway station.

The observations made on the basis of the informations learnt by the detailed examination ofthe coach are as under.

1. A large number of hit marks were observed on the outer part of the southern side of theburnt out S-6 coach which were due to stones. Apart from this a large number of stones werefound scattered inside the coach and similarly glass pieces were also seen. It was found that thesaid glass pieces were of the windows. From these observations it is possible to say that there was large scale stone pelting on the coach from outside and the glasses of the southern sidewas primarily broken due to stone throwing and the glass of the northern side were brokendue to the heat of the fire.

2. From the condition of the colour on the door of the coach, the burning pattern, condi-tion of the hand lock, the marks of the melting Aluminum strips of the frame of the windowetc. it can be established that both the east-west doors of the northern side of the coach andsimilarly the eastern door of the southern side, thus a total of three doors were opened at thetime of the incident of fire and the door in the west direction of the southern side was closed.

3. Out of the windows in the southern side, one rod of one of the windows was found tobe broken due to heat. As the height of the lower part of the window was at the height ofmore than 7 ft. from the ground, it negates the possibility of force on the rod from windowside. Further it was not found that any instrument was used to bend the rod. Thus, it becomesclear that the rod was attempted to be broken by the use of force from inside. It appears thatthe other rods had become loose due to the melting of joints due to heat.

4. By observing the burning pattern inside the coach, its degree, the depth and the eligateringpattern on the floor, it appears that the fire has spread inside the coach very rapidly. Further, byobserving the intensity of the eligatering pattern on the floor, it appears that the fire has startedfrom the eastern side of the coach and thereafter spread towards western side rapidly. Further,it appears that the intensity and proportion of the burning of the objects inside the coach wasvery high, up to around 80% part of the east to west side whereas in the 20% part, the intensityof burning was less in comparison with 80% part.

5. No sign was observed of the use of any corrosive fluid like acid in the said fire.

6. By observing the condition of the frames of the windows of the coach it appears thatall the windows of the coach were closed during the time of the fire.

Dr. M.S. Dahiya 
Assistant Director 
(Seal) 291