AGARTALA: Behind the lights, the pandal-hopping and the festival crowds, Tripura’s Durga Puja this year carried a darker undercurrent. At least 17 people died across the state in the thirteen days between Mahalaya on October 10 and the post-Dashami holiday on October 22, in a string of incidents ranging from a double homicide in Dharmanagar and an alleged domestic murder in Boxanagar to fatal road crashes and a fairground ride malfunction on Vijaya Dashami morning.
The toll breaks down into two confirmed homicides, nine road accident deaths, one electrocution death of a teenager in Ambassa that sparked violent public protests, and five unnatural, suspected homicide, fairground or custodial deaths. It does not include the mysterious deaths of three Tripura migrant youths in Bengaluru, whose grieving families appealed for state financial assistance around Vijaya Dashami to bring their bodies home.
The deaths came even as the state deployed 11,348 police and paramilitary personnel and 218 CCTV cameras to secure more than 2,900 Puja venues. Police also moved quickly on October 17 to clear a 72-hour blockade attempted on National Highway 8 at Baramura by surrendered militants, an operation in which two officers, Prasenjit Das and Kajal Debbarma, were injured.
The most serious crime of the festival unfolded on the night of Maha Ashtami, October 19, in Dharmanagar’s Baruakandi area, where brothers Subhadeep and Joydeep Ray Chowdhury were found with multiple sharp-weapon injuries and declared brought dead at Dharmanagar District Hospital. Their father, Samiran Ray Chowdhury, told police the trouble began a night earlier, when the brothers went to mediate a local dispute and were allegedly threatened by Bijan Das, who was himself critically injured in the clash and placed under police guard at the hospital.
While Das gave a conflicting account alleging he was the one attacked, investigators examining call records and a suspected drug-related financial dispute arrested the main accused on October 21. Separately, in the Paschimpara area of Boxanagar gram panchayat, the mysterious death of a young mother of one triggered local tension after her family accused her husband and mother-in-law of murder.
Road accidents accounted for the largest share of deaths. The first came on the night of Maha Panchami, October 15/16, when a car collided head-on with a motorcycle outside Ambassa Police Station, killing Sagar Dey and critically injuring Police Sub-Inspector Sushanta Mallik. Another crash on October 16 claimed the life of a resident named Sharma at Paschim Charakbai in South Tripura. As crowds swelled over Maha Ashtami and Maha Navami, the toll grew further: 16-year-old Purnima Basphar died in a collision on the Dharmanagar to Haflong Road, Class IX student Shilpi Ram Reang was killed at Karbook Market in Gomati district, 20-year-old Uday Gour was struck by a truck near Kailashahar, 60-year-old Haripada Das died after a speeding motorcycle hit a roadside bench in Salema, and 17-year-old Jit Sarkar was killed when he and a friend crashed a scooter near Chakmaghat on the Khowai highway.
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The deadliest crash occurred on the post-Dashami holiday on October 22, when a head-on collision between a bus and a car at Bagma in Gomati district killed veteran journalist and writer Biman Bihari Dhar on the spot along with his grandson Rahul Pal.
Separately, Khowai resident Munda Tanti was found dead inside his locked home on October 19, and the body of a young man, Rupak Das, was recovered beside railway tracks in Jirania the next day, with police still probing whether it was an accident. An inmate, Pranab Pal, was found dead inside Bishalgarh Sub-Jail the same day.
Another tragedy struck at 3 a.m. on Vijaya Dashami, when Rajesh Sarkar, a 37-year-old vegetable vendor and father of two, fell from a Ferris wheel at Agartala’s Netaji Play Centre Puja fair after the seat he occupied allegedly tilted mid-ride. He was declared brought dead at IGM Hospital minutes later, prompting public anger over the absence of safety checks on temporary fairground rides.
Despite the mounting casualties across the districts, official assessments at the close of the festival struck a celebratory note. Speaking at Dashami Ghat in Agartala on Wednesday, October 21, alongside Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Mayor and MLA Dipak Majumder, Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha thanked the police, the civic body, government departments and community organisations for what he described as peaceful festivities.
“We witnessed a wonderful sense of unity and brotherhood during this year’s Puja. The number of Puja celebrations has increased significantly, not only at community level but also in private residences. This reflects the vision of building a ‘New Tripura’ that we have been talking about,” Saha said, while expressing confidence that the October 23 ‘Mayar Gaman’ carnival, expected to host foreign delegates, would be a success. Urging people to resolve differences of opinion through dialogue and democratic processes to maintain a healthy social environment after the festival, the Chief Minister added, “Ultimately, the most important thing is serving the people, because in serving humanity, one finds the Divine.”
However, outside the guarded pandals and immersion ghats, the reality on the ground also included a sharp-weapon assault on GB Market Puja Committee secretary Bikram Saha in Agartala, an attack on a journalist and his family in Ramnagar over an illegal road blockade, and a pistol and Chinese knife scare at a Bishalgarh pandal in Puratan Rajnagar that had to be defused by local residents before police arrived.