Srikakulam Temple Barricaded After Stampede
Owner under house arrest, says stampede an act of god
Visakhapatnam: The Srikakulam district police on Sunday barred devotees from entering the Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple in Kasibugga town.
A day after a stampede claimed nine lives during a religious gathering, SP Maheshwara Reddy said, "The owner, Harimukund Panda, has been put under house arrest. We are interrogating a few others and would reveal the details once the cops submit a report.”
The 94-year-old Harimukund Panda hails from Odisha. He described the stampede as an "act of God" and claimed that "nobody is responsible." He said, "There was a massive crowd on Saturday. What happened thereafter, we cannot say. We allowed people to have darshan. The police helped us and tried to control the mob. What could we do," Panda said.
When asked why he did not inform the local authorities about the Ekadashi event, the temple founder replied: "I built the temple on my private land. Why should I inform the police or the administration?"
The nine bodies sent for postmortem were later handed over to their families. Two persons who sustained serious injuries are now stable, while others have been discharged, police said.
Visakhapatnam Range DIG Gopinath Jatti warned against spreading misinformation on social media. "This is a serious crime. We are collecting the details of those making such posts, videos and comments. We will take necessary legal action," he said.
Meanwhile, the state government began disbursing financial assistance to the affected families. Union minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu and minister Atchannaidu distributed cheques of Rs 15 lakh to families of the deceased from Nandigam mandal villages.
Rammohan Naidu clarified that an additional Rs 2 lakh would be provided by the central government. He expressed condolences and said both central and state governments would stand by the affected families.
District collector Pundkar visited three victims undergoing treatment at GEMS Hospital in Ragolu and distributed cheques of Rs 3 lakh each. The injured were Duvvu Kumari (25) from Bellipatiya village, Bade Kalavathi (49) from Routhupuram and Bodasingi Nimmamma (55) from Nandigam.
Endowment minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy visited the site and announced the formation of an advisory committee. A comprehensive safety checklist would be prepared for all temples, including both government and private establishments, he said.
