Law enforcement arrested seven people who were allegedly involved in the stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in the Chorbagan area, Kolkata, which resulted in 19 deaths. The accused were given 10 days of police custody by a local court on Sunday.
The people arrested by the police include members of the organising committee i.e. Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durgotsab Samity.secretary Raj Kumar and vice-president Santanu Dubey. It also includes 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.
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Police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder with regards to the stampede. The incident took place on Saturday, at 7:40 p.m. during heavy rain.
The authorities produced the seven accused before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Bankshall, on Sunday afternoon. The public prosecutor appealed to the judge for police custody of the aforementioned people, stating that their actions resulted in the loss of 19 lives, has devestated multiple families.
The attorney representing two of the accused, Pintu Dey and Kaushik Saha, argued that his clients were arrested despite the fact that they were involved with rescue efforts and social service. He added that his clients had no connection to the event organizers. Similarly, the lawyer for another accused, Raj Kumar (alias Raja), said that their client was not involved in the incident and was present solely to watch the puja.
Investigating officers from the Girish Park Police Station intend to interrogate the accused after the local court granted a remand in order to find out if they were involved with the stampede.
A major elemnt 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.
He added that the security personnel were inadequate and that both the gates as well as the approach road were too narrow.
Video footage from the venue depicted an announcer repeatedly asking for the exit gates be opened while warning those present outside the pandal.
"Don't come near the pandal. It's collapsing!" they said, as per the footage.
As people sheltered indoors from the rain, the queue outside continued to surge forward, creating pressure from both ends.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the police officer present at the spot said that the stampede "was triggered after an announcement by a private security agency and the blowing of some whistles".
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