Kolkata:
The seven people arrested for a stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata's Chorbagan area, which led to 19 deaths, were sent to 10 days of police custody by a local court on Sunday. These include members of the organising committee -- Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durgotsab Samity secretary Raj Kumar and vice-president Santanu Dubey -- besides Biplab Mukherjee, who built the bamboo structure; Koushik Saha and Pintu Dey, who were responsible for crowd control; and Suman Chakraborty and Rajesh Pal, who were in charge of private security.
Police had registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder over the stampede that broke out around 7:40 pm on Saturday amid heavy rain.
During the hearing, the seven men were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, Bankshall, on Sunday afternoon. The public prosecutor requested that the judge grant police custody, noting that the actions of these individuals led to the loss of 19 lives, leaving many families devastated.
But the lawyer representing two of the accused, Pintu Dey and Kaushik Saha, argued that his clients were arrested despite the fact that they had actually been engaged in rescue efforts and social service. He said his clients had no connection to the event organizers. Similarly, the lawyer for another accused, Raj Kumar (alias Raja), stated that her client had no involvement in the incident and had merely gone to view the puja.
After the court granted remand, investigating officers from the Girish Park Police Station now intend to interrogate the accused to determine if any other individuals were involved in the incident.
A key part of the investigation is video footage of an announcement asking people to leave the pandal because the structure was about to collapse. "We are trying to identify who made the announcement and what prompted it," an officer has said. "We have gathered sufficient evidence pointing to gross mismanagement by the puja organisers. There was no clear plan to manage the large number of visitors, and everything was handled verbally," the officer further said, adding that security personnel were inadequate and that both the gates and the approach road were too narrow.
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Videos from the venue show the announcer repeatedly urging that the exit gates be opened and warning those outside, "Don't come near the pandal. It's collapsing!" As people inside stayed put to avoid the rain, the queue outside kept pushing forward, building pressure from both ends.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the police officer present at the spot had reported that the stampede "was triggered after an announcement by a private security agency and the blowing of some whistles".
Adhikari announced Rs 25 lakh in compensation and government jobs for the families of those killed, and Rs 5 lakh each for the injured, whose medical treatment the state will pay for. He also said a fact-finding committee headed by a sitting high court judge would probe the incident.
The administration has asked several major organisers in Kolkata, including Tala Pratyay, Alipore Sarbojanin, Chetla Agrani and Ballygunge Sarbojonin, to temporarily stop admitting visitors.