Benzene vapours in BARC lab could have caused blast

Additional Commissioner of Police (East Region) Ritesh Kumar said that samples are being sent for forensic tests. Lab staff and eyewitnesses who reported the fire have recorded their statements. A dog squad was also brought in to check for any explosive material.

According to the postmortem report,the bodies bore no other injury marks. Blood,DNA and viscera samples have been sent for forensics. Bone marrow samples of victims were preserved to match with the DNA of the parents to make a confirmed identification. The bodies were handed over to the families on Wednesday night.

Said Director of Forensic Science Laboratories,Kalina,M V Garad: “We will analyse the debris to trace whether any explosive or inflammable substance or petroleum hydrocarbon was present that could have led to the fire.”

BARC sources said the two PhD students,Umang Singh and Partho Pratim Bag,were “tidying up” the laboratory,not conducting any experiment,when the fire broke out. There would normally have been five researchers in the laboratory which had been recently repainted — the others were on leave.

Police officers said the room housed a refrigerator,an oven,a fuming chamber and a mass spectrometer. A short circuit in any of these is not ruled out. The initial probe has also found that one of the window panes had been smashed and that one of the bodies was lying close to the door of the lab,suggesting that the scientists were trying to exit the room in a hurry. Policemen who entered the charred room said almost everything had been burnt badly,including the overhead lights and appliances. The only cylinder in the laboratory,a nitrogen cylinder,was not affected.