Possible chinks in the Gujarat government's "conspiracy theory" were on Tuesday pointed out to the Godhra inquiry commission, which is in the final stages of hearing events associated with the burning of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.
Making a power-point presentation before the commission, advocate Mukul Sinha, representing the NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch, said there was "no evidence" to prove that a conspiracy was hatched to target kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
"Expect for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, nobody in the state administration had any information that kar sevaks were returning to Gujarat by the Sabarmati Express," he said.
Citing recorded statements of police and state government officials who had earlier deposed before the panel, Sinha said, "There was no intelligence input from agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, state intelligence bureau or police in Godhra about the movement of kar sevaks. When such agencies had no information, then how could the conspirators have had the slighest knowlege on kar sevaks?" he said, dismissing the "conspiracy theory" submitted by the counsel of the Gujarat government and the VHP on Monday.
Sinha argued that if there was a conspiracy behind the incident, the alleged conspirators could have targeted three trains that passed Godhra on February 22, 24 and 26, 2002, as all carried large groups of kar sevaks at midnight.
"Why would any conspirator choose to target a train in daylight?" Sinha asked. The attack on the train could be an immediate fallout of incidents that happened at the Godhra railway station, he said.