Former Panchmahals collector Jayanti Ravi on Monday deposed before the commission investigating the Godhra train carnage.
She told the two-man commission that she first received information about '3,000 passengers of the Sabarmati Express being stranded and a mob of Muslims indulging in stone-pelting and arson near the Godhra station'.
Jayanti told Justice G T Nanavati and Justice K G Shah, the then district Superintendent of Police Raju Bhargav had given her this information over phone at 8. 26 am on February 27, 2002.
She said, "After giving necessary instructions to other district officials and informing the state home department, I reached the spot at 8.50 am."
Jayanti said she had also requisitioned additional police force from the state government to avert communal violence considering that the incident had taken place in a sensitive area of the town.
There was no mob of Muslims when she reached the spot, but the stranded passengers complained "they [Muslims] had pelted stones, torched the train and taken away several girl passengers in the Signal Falia area".
She told the commission that she ordered an immediate combing operation to locate the girl passengers, who were allegedly taken away by members of the Muslim mob.
Jayanti said that curfew was clamped in Godhra town at 10.55 am.
She said she saw a 'heap of charred bodies' in the middle of the S6 coach, with smoke still emanating from it. Later, she assessed that the number of dead bodies inside the ill-fated coach was about 30.
The former Panchmahals collector disclosed that a district official [mamlatdar] had informed her about 58 charred bodies --- 26 women, 12 children and 20 men --- found in S6 coach.
During the cross-examination, Jayanti told the commission that she did not come to any conclusion regarding the cause of incident even as she tried to piece together whatever she heard from the passengers.
Arrangements were made to send stranded passengers by state transport buses to their destinations, she said, adding, local Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists were not allowed to take women and children to a temple for safety, on precautionary grounds.
She also said that she came to know about the 'karsevaks having an altercation with a tea vendor' at the station much later. "Never once when I visited the spot did anyone tell me about such altercation with the tea vendor."
Jayanti said she never heard slogans like "Islam khatre mein hain [Islam is in danger]", "Hinduo ko kat daalo [Kill all Hindus]" at the spot of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Panchmahals police arrested an accused involved in last year's Sabarmati Express carnage, and who had been absconding.
Idris alias Iqbal Chaka, a resident of Signal Falia area, who was evading arrest after allegedly torching the S6 coach, was nabbed when he visited his house.
More than 100 people of the minority community, mostly of the same area, have been taken into custody so far in connection with the incident, they said.