Police continue to pick up relatively minor functionaries of the Chorebagan Puja in north Calcutta, where a stampede killed at least 19 people on October 17.
A second person was detained on Friday on the charge of being one of the announcers whose warnings about an impending pandal collapse allegedly led to a panicky scramble to the narrow and winding exit corridor, where the stampede took
place.
Kushal Majumdar aka Kalia is being questioned at Girish Park police station. His wife Koyel said her husband had been asked to “lie low” till October 27, but he had “surrendered” to the police on Friday.
On Thursday, the police had arrested Sanjib Raha aka Sentu, Puja committee treasurer and an alleged announcer. BJP heavyweights associated with the committee have not been touched so far.
“He (Kushal) wanted to come out much earlier but someone told him to lie low until October 27. Maybe he realised that the people at the top were no longer sheltering him. So he directly went to the police,” Koyel told a news channel.
Hours after his detention, a note purportedly signed by Kushal was posted on his social media handle.
It said the son of a club office-bearer had told Kushal that a portion of the pandal was collapsing.
The note said that “despite having no experience with a microphone”, Kushal made announcements over the mike, but only on the instructions of the police personnel present.
Eight people have been arrested so far, apart from Kushal’s detention.
The first seven, who included several members of the Puja committee, were arrested on October 18.
Raha, picked up from Nadia on Thursday, was produced before the Bankshall Court on Friday and remanded in police custody till October 28.
There has been no visible move to question either the BJP leaders whose names had featured on the Puja organising committee’s publicity materials, or the officials from various departments who had greenlit the pandal during the various stages of construction.
Many said the ultimate seal of administrative approval for the structure was chief minister Suvendu Adhikari’s presence at its formal inauguration.
Sources said the investigators were examining the physical conditions inside the pandal and the arrangements made for crowd management.
A forensic team that inspected the site on Thursday has, in its preliminary assessment, flagged inadequate cooling and ventilation at the sanctum sanctorum, where the Durga idol had been installed.
The pandal had 24 ACs, but the forensic team suspects this wasn’t enough given the number of people packed inside.
Investigators said this could well have caused a feeling of suffocation, worsening the plight of visitors caught in a crush.
The police are also examining how much the narrowness of the exit corridor earmarked for ordinary visitors may have contributed to the congestion.
The pandal had reserved a separate exit for VIPs, which reduced the space left for other visitors.
Police sources said the alleged role of the announcers was only one aspect of the investigation.
The probe is proceeding along two tracks. The police are investigating the criminal aspects of the incident, including the allegedly misleading announcements, lapses in crowd management and the circumstances that led to the deaths.
The state government has formed a separate special investigation team (SIT), headed by a retired judge, to conduct a broader inquiry, establish institutional accountability and suggest measures to avoid a repeat.
The SIT is expected to examine the sequence of events, the arrangements made by the organisers, and the role of the authorities.
CM at victim home
Suvendu on Friday met the family of Mithu Mondal, one of the 19 people killed in the stampede, at her home on Kebal Krishna Sur Street. He spoke to her husband Nirmal Mondal and son Sourav.
Sourav, who was with his mother at the Chorebagan pandal on October 17, told the chief minister that a sudden surge of people had pushed them from behind. His mother fell.
Suvendu has been visiting the families of the dead to hand over compensation cheques and other ex gratia benefits.