Yet to rule out sabotage or arson as one of the causes of the Jaipur Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot fire that claimed 11 lives and injured more than 100, the Rajasthan Police have requested for investigation reports from the Jaipur unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation and will soon question the 16 persons arrested in the case.

The police began investigations into whether the fire could have been an act of arson after the CBI busted an oil pilferage scam operating out of the same IOC depot, which included two IOC supervisors from that depot.

Unwilling to take any chances, the Jaipur police on Tuesday stated that they had requested case details from the CBI. Jaipur Inspector General of Police B L Soni said, “We requested case reports from the CBI for our investigation. We may also question those accused in the CBI case since two of them include senior IOC staff.” He added that a special team constituted to probe the fire was questioning witnesses, including technical officer Ashok Gupta who is in the hospital.

According to sources in the police, a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team was currently at the depot collecting evidence about the incident.

A senior officer said, “The FSL team may be able to shed some light on whether equipment at the IOC depot was mishandled, which could have caused the fire.”

He added that the police had also asked the CBI for a list of suspects who were under suspicion during their investigation, but have not been arrested. The Jaipur police believe that the CBI investigation could have led the remaining accused in the pilferage scam to resort to arson to cover their tracks. CBI spokesperson Atul Gupta said they have registered an FIR and preliminary reports have already been passed on to the police. “The IOC fire is not within the sphere of the CBI investigation, but we will share details with the Jaipur police,” he said.

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