A one-man commission probing the 2002 train carnage at Godhra town in Gujarat, today said it was an accident, and not a conspiracy as earlier stated.
Justice U.C.Banerjee presented his report to the railways ministry, two months after he inspected the train coach again in which 59 Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive.
The pilgrims were burnt alive at the Godhra rail station on February 27, 2002, blamed on a suspected Muslim mob. Thousands were later charred to death, mainly Muslims, in reprisal attacks which followed the Sabarmati Express carnage.
The report says the fire originated from inside the compartment and no external substance was used to set fire to the train.
"In the event the cause of fire being an inflammable liquid it would in fact catch fire upon ignition immediately. There would thus be a change of total sequential aspect to it first the flame, then the smell and lastly the smoke. The factum of user of an inflammable liquid in the coach in my view stands completely ruled out. But since there fire was there it cannot but be concluded that the fire originated in the coach itself without any external input," Banerjee told a news conference here.
Meanwhile, main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the report had no legal binding.
"Commission of enquiry and trial judge has sufficient evidence. They have a legal statutory basis to what they are doing. In a hurried exercise a railway gives the report this is not in any way a substitute to the criminal trial," BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley said.
Jaitley also said the report's timings were coinciding with the forthcoming assembly polls in Bihar, the Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
"We had said it earlier also that the committee which has been formed was to distract people from the Bihar elections. And the timing of the report proves it true that the committee which was ormed by Lalu Prasad Yadav was keeping in mind the Bihar elections. And further comments will be made after we have read the report," he said.
Warning of strict action against those exploiting religion to influence the electorate, Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy today said it would be "unfortunate" if parties rake the Justice U C Banerjee report on Godhra incident during the elections.