Kolkata Police arrested seven puja committee members after a stampede killed 19 people and injured 25 at a Durga Puja pandal. A judicial probe and compensation were announced.
A day after a stampede left 19 pandal hoppers dead and 25 others hurt following a heavy rain at overcrowded Chorebagan Sarbojonin Durgotsob puja mandap in Girish Park area, the Kolkata Police registered a suo moto FIR on Sunday for the tragedy, arrested seven puja committee members and imposed prohibitory orders in and around the closed venue.
The FIR was initiated at Girish Park police station under section 105 (culpable homicide), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS. Meanwhile, prohibitory orders under section 163 of the BNSS have been enforced at the puja mandap and its periphery for three days. The cops also detained several suspects for questioning and arrested seven among them.
The arrested accused are puja committee's general secretary Raj Kumar Sewda (48), vice president Santanu Dubey (55), Biplab Mukherjee (48), the builder of bamboo structure of the mandap, Koushik Saha (53), who was engaged in crowd control and VIP Pass check, Pintu Dey (51), who was engaged in crowd control, and two private security in charge– Suman Chakraborty (30) and Rajesh Pal (29).
They were remanded by the Bankshall Court in police custody till October 28. In the morning, union home minister Amit Shah, who spent Saturday night in the city after cancelling his plan of pandal hopping, visited the injured at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital along with West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari after offering puja at Kalighat Temple.
He stated in social media, “I have met the devotees, who were injured in the stampede at Chorebagan Durga Puja mandap, at hospital and inquired of their health conditions. The West Bengal government stands firm with each injured and affected family in this tough time. I pray to goddess Durga for the quick recovery of all the injured” before leaving the city quietly.
In the afternoon, Mr Adhikari announced a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court and a compensation of ₹25 lakhs and a government job for each victim's family and ₹5 lakhs for each injured after chairing a meeting with top brass of the city police, state police and the administration. He said, “The state chief secretary will write to the Chief Justice of the HC, urging him to depute a judge to lead the probe. If our plea is not allowed, we will entrust a retired judge for it.”
He also constituted a special investigation team to be headed by the judge. It comprises a joint secretary-rank official of the state home department and representatives of state director general of police SN Gupta, National Disaster Response Force and state disaster management department secretary Rajesh Sinha. The CM however excluded state fire and emergency services department, Kolkata Police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials since allegations of lack of safety and crowd mismanagement surfaced against them.
His decision came after he was seen in a viral video pulling up the senior IPS officers while inspecting the place of occurrence on Saturday night. “Why didn't you shut the puja mandap immediately when the rain started? Where was the officer-in-charge of the local police station during the incident?” the CM was heard asking the cops angrily. Panihati BJP MLA, Ratna Debnath, also blamed the police and the puja organisers for their “negligence” behind the stampede.
Mr Adhikari set up another team, including DG (fire and emergency services) Anuj Sharma and ADG (special task force) Jawed Shamim, to inspect the safety aspects in all the puja pandals in the city and banned the VIP passes for the pandal hoppers. He later roped in nine senior IPS officers, who earlier served the city police but faced transfer, for their experience in effective crowd management in festive season. Meanwhile many prominent puja pandals, like Tala Protyoy and Chetla Agrani, which are famous for high footfall, have closed visitors’ entry.
