Thiruvanthapuram: The fire in the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Kerala secretariat was not caused by short circuit, a forensic report submitted to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Thiruvananthapuram stated.
The report stated that only files were destroyed in the fire and other items, including sanitiser, failed to catch fire.
The report was compiled by the forensic department after examining 21 out of 45 items collected from the scene. A report on the fan and other devices is yet to be completed.
Though an officer from the protocol department submitted all the required documents to the NIA office in Kochi, the probe agency is investigating the reason for his presence at the GAD office three hours before the fire. The entire department was in quarantine at the time of the incident.
A fire broke out at the Kerala secretariat on August 25, damaging some documents and triggering a political controversy. The incident happened at the protocol office at the North Sandwich Block, triggering a slew of speculations and allegations.
There is also suspicion that there was a delay in notifying the fire department unit inside the Secretariat about the incident. They were informed about it at 5:15pm, thirty minutes after the fire started.
A preliminary investigation into the cause of the fire had revealed that the fire originated from a fan in a closed room. The plastic coating of the fan caught fire due to overheating and eventually caught on to the curtain, shelves and papers in the closed room, a report filed by the PWC Chief Engineer stated.
The FIR on the case states that files dealing with the guest house notifications and permits were destroyed in the fire.
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