The Chorebagan stampede probe report will be tabled in the Bengal Assembly within three months, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told legislators on Wednesday, as investigators examine crowd management failures and possible structural and electrical faults at the north Kolkata Durga Puja pandal.
Nineteen visitors were killed in the stampede at the Chorebagan pandal on October 17. The state government has appointed a six-member Special Investigation Team headed by retired Calcutta High Court judge Anindita Roy Saraswati. Kolkata police are conducting a separate investigation into the deaths.
“I will table the report by the retired judge heading a Special Investigation Team within three months,” Adhikari told the Assembly. He also said that those responsible would not be spared.
The SIT is expected to reconstruct the sequence of events, assess crowd-control arrangements, examine possible structural or electrical defects and review emergency and evacuation plans before recommending safety measures. SIT members met at Writers’ Buildings on Monday, where city police officers briefed them on the progress of the separate criminal investigation.
Nine people have been arrested so far, including three members of the puja committee. Among those arrested are Sanjiv Raha and Kushal Majumder, whose public announcements about an imminent collapse of the pandal and appeals for people to leave allegedly aggravated an already dangerous crowd surge. Police have also questioned artist Susanta Shibani Paul.
Eight of the nine accused were produced before Bankshall Court on Wednesday. Police told the court that their preliminary investigation pointed to a poor pandal-gate layout, structural flaws and negligence by members of the puja committee. The court extended the custody of the accused by four days after hearing both sides.
Preliminary accounts cited by officers indicate that volunteers, private security guards and puja committee members may not have alerted the administration, including the police control room, quickly enough after the situation began to deteriorate. One officer said there were not enough female volunteers to prevent women visitors from entering while others were waiting near the exit during a shower. Some visitors reportedly tripped and fell close to the pandal’s exit.
Investigators have also said that the puja committee did not take adequate steps to prevent a stampede despite observing a rise in footfall from four days before the incident. Not all CCTV cameras at the pandal were functional, according to an officer cited in the report.
Witnesses told police that the area in front of the idol became so congested for a brief period on the evening of October 17 that breathing became difficult. Police accounts also state that some officers urged visitors pushing through the entrance into the sanctum sanctorum to leave, but the crowd continued to swell.
The SIT’s findings and the police investigation will now proceed separately, with the state government’s three-month Assembly deadline setting the next public milestone in the case.
