Calcutta High Court has told the Bengal government that it cannot spare a sitting judge to head the probe into the stampede at Chorebagan in north Calcutta that killed 19 people, but that the state was free to appoint a retired judge of its choice.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge said that in line with a Supreme Court directive, a sitting judge cannot be appointed to head an inquiry, as the state government had sought.
On Saturday evening, 19 people died and several suffered serious injuries following a stampede at the Durga Puja pandal of the Chorebagan Sarbajanin Durgostav Samity.
Hundreds were stranded in a narrow, curved exit, closed because of the rain, around 7.30pm when pressure from the crowd building behind them caused many in front to fall and get trampled on.
The incident triggered intense social and administrative scrutiny, and chief secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal wrote to the chief justice of Calcutta High Court on behalf of the Bengal government, requesting the appointment of a sitting judge to head the judicial inquiry into the Chorbagan Durga Puja stampede.
Sources in the state administration said the letter was sent on Monday.
The court’s vacation bench was hearing a PIL by a lawyer seeking an independent investigation into the stampede.
Reacting to Tuesday’s directive, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the state government would constitute an inquiry committee headed by a retired judge of the court.
“We wanted the inquiry committee to be headed by a sitting judge. However, the chief justice has suggested that the inquiry committee be constituted under a retired judge. We will form the committee with a retired judge,” Suvendu said on Tuesday.
“As soon as we receive the report, we will place it before you (journalists) and on the floor of the Assembly to make it public. We will also implement the committee’s recommendations to ensure that next year’s Durga Puja is foolproof.”
Suvendu spent Navami travelling from one district to another to meet the families of those killed in the Chorebagan stampede, seeking to highlight what he described as the “difference” between his government and that of his predecessor. Adhikari said he could not bring back those who had died but could stand by their families in their hour of grief. (See Page 5)
Sources said Suvendu’s visits and the financial assistance extended to the kin were part of a damage-control exercise.
The police have so far arrested seven persons, including two members of the puja committee, and have charged them with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempting to commit culpable homicide.
The police said they have begun scanning CCTV footage to understand how the incident unfolded and who was inside the sanctum sanctorum when the stampede occurred.