A top official from the Directorate of Forensic Science on Tuesday denied any possibility of samples collected from S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express train, in which 59 people were killed in a blaze at Godhra, being tampered with before they were sent for forensic tests.

DFS Assistant Director D B Talati refuted any such possibility when he was cross-examined by the inquiry panel probing the fire on the train and the post-Godhra communal riots of 2002.

Advocate Mukul Sinha of the NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch told the two-member Nanavati Commission of the possibility that petrol could have been poured over the samples before they were handed over to the DFS.

"Can you say if small quantities of petrol were poured on each of the samples (taken from the train) before they were sealed and sent to the forensic laboratory?" Sinha asked the DFS official.

Talati completely ruled out advocate Sinha's claims. "During my tests, I did not find any fluid petrol on any of the samples which were sent to me for forensic tests," he said. Sinha then claimed that 46 of the 47 gas choromotographs submitted by Talati to the panel clearly showed the presence of fluid petrol in the samples.