SIT chief flags narrow exits, poor lighting at puja pandal

Kolkata: A retired Calcutta High Court judge, heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) visited the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal and the site of the stampede on Thursday evening, while the Kolkata Police on Friday arrested a second announcer, Kushal Majumdar, who is accused of making a misleading announcement that allegedly triggered panic among devotees at the Durga Puja pandal in North Kolkata on the night of October 17.

During her visit to the pandal on Thursday evening, retired Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati said the entry and exit routes at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal were "very narrow".

Read more: Kolkata stampede: Chorbagan Durga Puja treasurer held over 'pandal collapsing' announcement


Saraswati also pointed out that poor lighting inside the pandal may have contributed to the incident. Sources said the emergency exit was locked when the chaos began to unfold on the premises. "The entrance and exit routes at pandal are very narrow, and the lighting arrangements inside were poor. The police said the emergency exit was closed at the time of the incident. We inspected the entire pavilion under the same lighting conditions as those prevailing during the incident," she told reporters. Asked about the SIT probe, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand told mediapersons that he would not comment on the matter as the SIT had been formed to investigate the incident and submit its report. The Durga Puja pandal tragedy claimed 19 lives and left 25 others injured.

Read more: Chorbagan pandal deaths: Overcrowding, lack of management, cops and volunteers blamed

Second announcer arrested

Kushal Majumdar, one of the persons who allegedly announced on the night of October 17 that the pandal might collapse, was arrested by the Girish Park police on Friday, people in the know said. Another person, Sanjib Raha, was arrested in Nadia district on Thursday on suspicion of making the misleading announcement over the microphone. With Majumdar's arrest, the total number of arrests in the stampede case has risen to nine.

Majumdar's wife claimed that officials of the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja Committee had instructed her husband to announce that the pandal would collapse and also advised him to go underground until October 27.