Groundnut fire: CID steps in, Congress demands judicial probe

The Gujarat CID-Crime today took over the investigations into the devastating fire which has so far destroyed groundnut worth Rs 3 crore kept at a warehouse on the outskirts of Rajkot city.

The Rajkot Police conducted the initial probe into the fire, which started three days ago and is still raging.

Even as CID-Crime officials visited the warehouse in the Shapar industrial area, about 200km from here, as part of the probe, the Gujarat Congress demanded a judicial inquiry.

The opposition party said a sitting judge of the Gujarat High Court should probe the fire incident as it alleged a larger conspiracy by the ruling BJP to "hide corruption in procurement of groundnut from farmers".

The blaze erupted on the night of May 6 in the rented warehouse and was still raging, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (Rajkot Range) D N Patel.

"A team of CID-Crime today began its probe by visiting the warehouse. The fire is still not under control. It may take another 24 hours to douse the flames.

"There was no breakthrough in the initial probe done by the Rajkot police. It is still unclear how the blaze started," Patel told PTI.

A huge stock of groundnut, purchased from farmers in Gujarat by NAFED (National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India), was stored in the godown.

Yesterday, Gujarat Agriculture Minister R C Faldu said of the total 42,000 sacks kept in the warehouse, around 26,000 sacks, having groundnut worth Rs 3 crore, were gutted.

He even claimed the fire could be a deliberate attempt to malign the BJP government's image.

This is the second major fire incident at a groundnut warehouse in Rajkot district in the last three months. In February, groundnut worth Rs 28 crore was gutted in an inferno at a godown in the district's Gondal taluka.

Citing other similar incidents of fire in different parts of the state in recent times, senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia alleged a larger conspiracy involving people linked to the BJP.

"Since there was a large-scale corruption in procuring groundnut from farmers, people associated with the BJP are trying to destroy evidences by setting such warehouses ablaze.

Groundnut worth Rs 100 crore went up in smoke in a series of such incidents across the state recently," alleged Modhwadia.

"CID-Crime would only probe how the fire started. They will not probe the entire conspiracy. Thus, we demand that a probe from all angles be carried out by a sitting High Court judge," the Congress leader added.