The six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the October 17 Kolkata stampede that killed 19 people has zeroed in on the narrow exit point and the dimly lit pathway at the Chor Bagan Durga Puja pandal, even as the eighth accused arrested in the case was due to be produced before a court on Friday, a day after his arrest.
A surge in crowds amid heavy rain triggered the stampede at one of the most popular Durga Puja venues, in cramped north Kolkata, as crowds jostled through a narrow bylane on Saptami, the seventh day of the festival.
Retired Calcutta high court judge Anindita Roy Saraswati, heading the SIT, said the stampede did not happen inside the pandal but at the exit point. “We found the lights to be dim, as people had complained,” she said outside the pandal on Thursday.
She added that the pandal was kept in the same condition as it was during the incident. “We have to find out how the whole thing happened and who was responsible.”
A police forensic team visited the stampede site on Thursday to create a 3D map. A drone was deployed for aerial videos of the pandal and the roads around it.
A police officer, who inspected the site, said that the families of those killed and the 25 injured people alleged that the emergency gate, which was otherwise used for VIP movement, was locked. “The exit path used by common visitors was around seven feet wide, which was extremely narrow. The exit route was further narrowed by outdoor units of the air conditioner machines installed inside the pandals and food stalls set up on a road.”
The officer added that visitors had to use a five-feet-wide and seven-feet-high circular ramp to get a 360-degree view of the idol inside the pandal. “[They had to] climb down the ramp before leaving the pandal. There was no second path.”
The officer said the ramp was intact during the police inspection. “It seems people panicked and ran for safety because someone announced that the pandal, of which the ramp was an integral part, was collapsing.”
Sanjib Raha, a puja committee member, was arrested from Nadia on Thursday and brought to Kolkata.
A second officer said Raha was identified as one who made the announcement that triggered the panic.
Another person, Kushal Majumdar, was detained for questioning in the case on Friday. A second officer said inquiries indicate that Majumdar also made announcements on October 17.
All the accused arrested in the case have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)’s Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 3(5) (crime committed with common intention).
The seven accused, including Raj Kumar Sewda, the puja committee secretary, and Santanu Dubey, the vice-president, were remanded in 10-day police custody.
The stampede triggered a political row as there has been no recent history of people dying in a stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in West Bengal.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in West Bengal for the first time five months ago, has drawn flak from the opposition over the stampede.
The Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (MAITC) and the Left parties targeted chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, especially because his nephew, Depdeep Adhikari, was involved in the puja as its patron along with BJP’s north Calcutta chief Tamoghna Ghosh and the party’s lawmaker Vijay Ojha.
Suvendu Adhikari visited the families of those killed on Tuesday and Wednesday and distributed compensation. The state government has promised a job for one member from each family.
Suvendu Adhikari said nobody would have died had someone not announced over the loudspeaker that the pandal was about to collapse. “The incident happened because of human error and not because a crowd entered the pandal to take shelter from rain,” Adhikari said on Wednesday.
MAITC lawmaker Kunal Ghosh alleged that efforts to shield those responsible for the tragedy have started. “We appeal to the SIT chairperson to question all people associated with the puja after they are taken into police custody. Otherwise, the truth will never be revealed.”