Seven IPS officers, brought back temporarily to Calcutta from their current postings to manage the Puja crowd following the Chorebagan tragedy, hit the streets on Monday to ensure better police coordination with the bigger Puja committees.
Two other senior IPS officers, Anuj Sharma and Jawed Shamim, reviewed the security arrangements at prominent pandals, including those at Tala Prattoy and Santosh Mitra Square.
After multiple meetings with on-duty officers and Puja organisers, the IPS officers ensured that certain measures were adopted on Monday:
Additional lights were installed at several pandals that lacked proper illumination at the entrances and exits.
VIP entrance channels were dismantled at many pandals to free up space for the teeming crowds of ordinary visitors.
Sharma, who heads the fire and emergency services department as director-general of police, told the Puja committees to remove the reserved VIP entrances “immediately”.
The exits were widened at some pandals.
Meetings were held to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the Chorebagan surge and stampede if it rained again.
Sharma and Shamim told Puja organisers that the entry gates must be closed temporarily if it rains heavily.
The police officers on duty at some of the high-footfall pandals said the Puja committees had been told to do away with the rope corridors during surges.
“Committee members were told that instead of trapping the visitors with rope corridors, they should restrict entry into the sanctum sanctorum, where the Durga idol has been installed, during rush hours and surges,” a north Calcutta OC said.
Police sources said officers had retrieved footage from 13 of the 30 CCTV cameras installed at the Chorebagan pandal.
“I have scanned some footage. We are trying to fix the identities of some of those at the pandal when the incident occurred and collect their statements as witnesses,” Kunal Agarwal, additional commissioner of police (crime), said.
Additional commissioner of police (crime) Kunal Agarwal said: “The footage shows visitors pouring out from three exits, including the VIP exit of the pandal.”
Hunt for announcer
Agarwal said the police were trying to identify the individual who made the announcement about an impending collapse of a part of the pandal on Saturday evening and find out who had instructed him to say this.
Eyewitnesses have alleged that the announcement caused panic and triggered a rush that led to the stampede.
“Till now we have not found evidence of any portion of the pandal crumbling from the footage we have received so far,” Agarwal said.
“The footage revealed that police were present with volunteers. The probe will cover whether the incident took place only because of the rain or something more.”
Fake-video arrest
The police said they had arrested a man from Cooch Behar, Ainul Haque, for spreading a false message through a fabricated video about the Chorebagan stampede.
The Chorebagan pandal remained sealed for visitors on Monday, too.
In the afternoon, police officers and members of the forensic team visited the site for the third time in as many days and collected scraps of the pandal’s structure, including broken pieces of steel and bamboo fragments, apart from CCTV footage.
“The organisers’ statements will be collected, and the location of key Puja committee functionaries on Saturday evening ascertained based on their tower locations as part of the probe to fix responsibility,” a senior police officer said.
Police sources said officers had retrieved footage from 13 of the 30 CCTV cameras installed at the pandal and were examining it.
"I have also scanned some footage. We are trying to fix the identities of some of those who were inside the pandal when the incident occurred and collect their statements as witnesses," Kunal Agarwal, additional commissioner of police (crime), said.
"The footage shows visitors pouring out from three exits, including the VIP exit of the pandal."
Agarwal said the police were trying to identify the individual who made the announcement about an impending collapse of a part of the pandal on Saturday evening and find out who had instructed him to say this.
Several eyewitnesses have alleged that the announcement caused panic and triggered a rush that led to the stampede.
"Till now we have not found evidence of any portion of the pandal crumbling from the footage we have received so far," Agarwal said.
"The footage revealed that police were present with volunteers. The probe will cover whether the incident took place only because of the rain or something more."
The police said they had arrested a person from Cooch Behar, Ainul Haque, for spreading a false message through a fabricated video about the Chorebagan stampede.