Chorebagan stampede: Man arrested for making 'potentially misleading' announcement

A man accused of being the announcer whose warning of an imminent pandal collapse allegedly set the stage for the killer stampede at the Chorebagan Puja was detained from Nadia on Thursday and later arrested.

Sanjeev Raha aka Sentu, the treasurer of the Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja Committee, has been brought to the city police’s Lalbazar headquarters for questioning about the October 17 stampede that killed 19 people.

The announcement allegedly asked people not to approach the pandal or the idol and urged those inside to leave at once. This set off a surge towards the exit down a narrow, winding corridor whose mouth was blocked by people unwilling to leave amid the rain, creating extreme congestion and causing some to fall and get trampled, eyewitnesses have said.

Police sources described the announcement as “potentially misleading”. The investigators are examining the circumstances under which it was made and whether there was any basis for suggesting the structure was on the verge of collapse.

It is yet to be established whether the pandal was indeed about to fall apart.

Seven people, including several club officials and Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Committee members, had earlier been arrested. However, several BJP leaders and people close to them who were associated with the organising committee have not faced any police action.

BJP Jorasanko MLA Bijoy Ojha has been identified in reports as the Puja committee chairman. Publicity material circulated by the committee names the BJP’s north Calcutta district president, Tamaghna Ghosh, as its chief adviser and Debdeep Adhikari, nephew of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari who had inaugurated the Puja, as its chief patron.

Members of the newly formed special investigation team (SIT) — headed by the retired Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati — visited the stampede site for the first time on Thursday evening.

The team, announced on Wednesday, has the mandate of reconstructing the sequence of events, identify possible lapses in safety arrangements, and recommend measures to prevent a recurrence. It has three months to submit its findings and recommendations.