The West Bengal government will put in place a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday, as the toll rose to 19, with seven people arrested for their role in the incident that shocked the state during its most popular festival and triggered a bitter exchange between the administration and opposition parties.
Stampede at Chor Bagan puja pandal kills 19
The dead include 13 women and four children, said doctors at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where victims were treated after Saturday evening’s incident, which appeared to be triggered by a lethal combination of factors — a spike in crowds, poor control measures, a spell of rain and an announcement that sent panic rippling through the thousands of devotees at the Chor Bagan puja pandal in northern Kolkata.
Adhikari said 25 people were still being treated. “Twenty-three of them sustained minor injuries and are likely to be discharged soon. Two victims remain in ICU, but I have been told their condition was not life-threatening,” he said.
Police booked the seven arrested people under sections dealing with culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the stampede.
Meanwhile, the opposition Mamata All India Trinamool Congress said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state had links with the puja organisers and accused the state police of doing little to streamline the crowds. The BJP in turn accused the opposition party of “politicising” the tragedy and Adhikari said his administration was dealing with a “pile of rubbish” that would take time to “clean up”.
Residents, eyewitnesses and survivors, meanwhile, said there weren’t enough personnel to keep the hordes of people in order when the accident struck the pandal, where the puja has been held for 93 years, around 7.30pm on saptami, the seventh day of Durga Puja festivities.
Announcement about pandal collapse triggers panic
A preliminary police probe suggested that the frenzy may have been sparked after the puja organisers announced that the pandal was about to collapse and urged devotees to leave, said Adhikari. As showers lashed the city, drenched visitors tried to rush out of the narrow bylanes that lead to the pandal, less than 2km east of Howrah Bridge.
“While people inside the pandal refused to leave amid the rain, more people tried to get in through the entrance and the exit. It was then that the organisers started announcing that the pandal could collapse and the people should leave,” a police officer told HT.
“As it rained, people tried to take shelter inside the pandal. Those inside the pandal refused to go out. People also started to push in from the exit resulting in the chaos, which ultimately started the stampede,” said a local resident, who asked not to be named.
The cramped path to the pandal initially opens into a wide space. However, devotees had to filter through a thin passageway, just about wide enough for three people — this passageway bent in an arc towards the idol.
All but three of the victims were from outside the city. The oldest was 66 and the youngest was 13, said officials.
Pramod Gupta, who resides near the Chor Bagan puja pandal on Radha Madhav Lane, told news agency PTI the queue had spilled onto the arterial Mahatma Gandhi Road, about 700 metres away.
“Everything was fine till the rain started,” he said.
Gupta said there was a sudden rush after the downpour started and people were trying to scamper out of the pandal as many more entered from outside.
“Standing in front of my house, I could hear screams as people rushed out,” he said.
Another resident told PTI that the already narrow street was squeezed further by temporary stalls and shops, impeding rescue efforts.
Also read: Kolkata stampede triggers safety checks at Durga Puja pandals in Lucknow
Eyewitnesses allege ambulances were unable to reach
“Ambulances could not reach the spot, and the injured had to be carried out to the main thoroughfare some distance away,” she said.
Some people also alleged there were not enough police at the scene, that there were no ambulances and that locals had to use cab-booking apps to help victims reach the hospital.
“There were not enough police pressure. They just gave in to the pressure. Also there were hardly any ambulances,” said Santanu Baidya, a local resident.
The chief minister rejected the claims.
“Who made these allegations? The victims, whom I spoke to at the hospital, gave a different version. They said the police helped them and booked cabs to send them to the hospital. The allegations are mainly against some home guards recruited two years back (during the previous government),” Adhikari said.
“We are carrying on our shoulders a massive pile of rubbish as baggage. A clean-up will take time,” he said.
Seven arrested in stampede case
The seven arrested people were identified as Raj Kumar Sewda (48), committee secretary; Santanu Dubey (55), vice-president; Biplab Mukherjee (48), engaged in the construction of the bamboo structure; Koushik Saha (53), engaged in controlling the crowd and checking VIP passes; Pintu Dey (51), engaged in controlling the crowd; Suman Chakraborty (30), private security agency staff; and Rajesh Pal (29), private security in-charge.
Stampedes and accidents are relatively rare during Durga Puja in West Bengal, despite the scale of festivities. Millions of people throng the streets and mill through thousands of makeshift pandals, walking through pathways cordoned off by bamboo barricading.
The Mamata All India Trinamool Congress targeted the government, and Kolkata MLA Kunal Ghosh said the experienced members of the Chor Bagan puja committee stepped down after the BJP came to power in May.
“Where was the security and emergency response when people needed you most?” the party asked on its social media handles, targeting the Kolkata Police over the alleged lapses.
Abhishek Banerjee questions alleged CM family link
The party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also questioned the alleged involvement of the chief minister’s nephew, Debdeep Adhikari, in the puja organising committee and demanded accountability from the ruling establishment.
Referring to the committee’s list of office-bearers, he asked, “When will you put the culprit nephew in jail, Suvendu Babu?”
The party shared purported publicity material of the organising committee of the Chor Bagan puja which listed Debdeep Adhikari as its chief patron.
Hitting back, state BJP spokesperson and MLA from the adjacent Kashipur-Belgachhia constituency Ritesh Tiwari said: “I do not know if any relative of the chief minister is linked to the puja committee but even if he was, would he ever want such a tragedy to take place under his watch?”
He added: “For decades, TMC leaders such as Partha Chatterjee, Aroop Biswas and Firhad Hakim have been closely associated with the Durga Pujas. Some BJP leaders may also have been associated with some pujas. What is wrong with that?”