Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 18: The police have arrested seven members of the organising committee of the Chorbagan Durga Puja celebrations in North Kolkata where 19 people, mostly women, were killed and over 50 people injured, many of them critically, in a stampede at the Puja pandal on Saturday night, officials said on Sunday.
The police have also registered a suo motu case at Girish Park Police Station under Sections 105, 110, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and said more arrests are likely to follow.
The arrested accused, the police said, included 48-year-old Raj Kumar Sewda alias Raja (secretary), 55-year-old Santanu Dubey (vice president), and 48-year-old Biplab Mukherjee alias Joy, who was involved in the construction of the bamboo structure. The others are 53-year-old Koushik Saha and 51-year-old Pintu Dey, who were engaged in crowd controlling and checking VIP passes. Private security in charges Suman Chakraborty (30) and Rajesh Pal (29), the police said.
In addition, seven others have also been detained for questioning as the police launched an investigation to probe what exactly caused the stampede after a sudden heavy rains forced the people in the queue outside to rush inside the pandal for cover. “We have arrested seven people. They were among the 14 detained last night. More arrests may be made,” a senior police official said. “The process of identifying the bodies is underway.”
The action comes within hours after the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vowed strong steps and assured that the guilty will not be spared. Adhikari, who is also met the injured at the Apollo Hospital along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, has said a high-level committee headed by a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court would be constituted to probe the incident.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who arrived in West Bengal on Saturday evening on a pre-scheduled two-day visit, cancelled his other engagements on Sunday to visit the injured in the hospital. Junior doctors and interns from the Kolkata Medical College alleged mismanagement of patients from the stampede. The West Bengal Health Minister has denied the claims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced compensation of ₹2 lakh for the dead and ₹50,000 for the injured.
He said the team would include members of the Special Task Force (STF), the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and other departments. Further, a safety review of all major Durga Puja pandals across West Bengal would be conducted, he announced.
The chief minister, who also announced an ex gratia and promised Group D government jobs for kin of deceased, said the police would also analyse the CCTV footage to gather evidence, while assuring that the guilty would not be spared. “The Kolkata Police AFS is studying the CCTV footage. Whoever is found negligent will face legal action. The Prime Minister has been informed about this. The Home Minister is himself in Kolkata, and is personally monitoring the situation,” he said on Saturday.
The incident has raised questions over crowd management at such events once again, with eyewitnesses raising questions over the lapses by authorities and the administration. With the questions being asked, the police have initiated a probe and are looking into all possible details that caused the incident.
The police indicated that a sudden downpour, and a lack of crowd management caused the tragedy. Plus, misleading announcements and the inadequate number of police personnel and private security guards at the venue only worsened the situation.
The visitors, the police said, were left confused seeing the huge crowd at the venue. “We have gathered sufficient evidence pointing to gross mismanagement by the puja organisers,” a senior police official said. “There was no clear plan to manage the large number of visitors, and everything was handled verbally… Security personnel were inadequate.”
“Due to the mismanagement, people tried to escape through the entrance gate during the stampede. Both the gates and the approach road were narrow, which contributed to the accident,” he added.
The police have collected the CCTV footage as part of its probe. Analysing the footage, the police said a sudden announcement was made that appealed the people to leave the pandal as the structure was about to collapse. Cops are now trying to find out what prompted the organisers to make such an announcement.
The forensic team has also collected the evidence from the site and the police will soon cross question the survivors to get the first-hand account details for the investigation. “Another team of forensic experts will visit the pandal today to collect further evidence. Officers from our Detective Department will also visit the venue as part of the investigation,” the officials said.
The eyewitnesses have backed the police claims and blamed the lapses in crowd management, confusion over entry and exit routes, and heavy rain for the incident. They said people were left confused during the rush hours and the police deployment was not adequate that led to the incident. Many even alleged that personnel were deployed near the VIP entrance. The police are now trying to verify these claims.
Multiple videos have also emerged showing there were clear signs of danger at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal. “Open the exit gates, let people get out! Please, leave,” an announcer says over and over in Bengali, as devotees already inside the pandal try to stay put to avoid the pouring rain outside.
For those trying to enter, the announcement adds, “Stop. Don’t come near the pandal. It’s collapsing!” In response, those trying to enter push the long queue forward, again to avoid the rain and to get in before the gates likely close.
This apparently creates extreme pressure from both ends, with people not exiting while those at the entry gate insist on getting inside the pandal. A video by a social media influencer has her describing the scene: “There is no space! There’s no crowd management.” She also mentions a “VIP lane” in which “people are easily getting in.”
Another 49-second clip shot on a phone by a man in the crowd shows dozens of people trapped inside a narrow, low-roofed, covered and barricaded passage, with women and children crying for help. People are packed shoulder to shoulder and chest to back, with no room to move, and some are seen clutching the wall to avoid falling. Another video shows a large crowd rushing into the pandal, some of them running with umbrellas in the rain.
Witnesses also mentioned the sudden heavy rain, the lack of proper lighting, and the queue being “90 minutes long” at the historically famous puja in the North Kolkata locality, where lanes are narrow. The crowds had swelled because it was a Saturday as well as Saptami, the seventh day of the 10-day Hindu festival, considered particularly auspicious.
A senior police officer has said investigators were examining a video in which the announcer could be heard saying the pandal was about to collapse. “We are trying to identify who made the announcement and what prompted it,” the officer said. “We have gathered sufficient evidence pointing to gross mismanagement by the puja organisers. There was no clear plan to manage the large number of visitors, and everything was handled verbally.
“We have collected CCTV camera footage, recorded accounts from locals and eyewitnesses, and corroborated our findings. Security personnel were inadequate,” the officer said. He said the announcements guiding visitors on entry, exit and crowd movement were insufficient and left people confused amid the rush. Neither the gate nor the approach road outside the pandal was wide enough for the sudden influx of people, he added. According to initial reports by the officials at the spot, the incident occurred owing to an announcement on the loudspeaker by the puja organisers.”
According to the Chef Minister, “Initial input from the ACP [Assistant Commissioner of Police] who was present on the spot says that this thing was triggered after an announcement by a private security agency and the blowing of some whistles.” Family members of two of the victims said private guards blowing whistles near the pandal had set off a rush among those waiting to enter, Adhikari said. The stampede broke out around 7:40 pm amid heavy rain. Thirteen women and two minors were among the 19 killed. Another about 50 people were injured, three of whom were admitted to the intensive care unit, with one in critical condition. Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.