Panel to probe Kolkata stampede; nine IPS officers to handle festive rush

Kolkata: A high-powered committee, led by a Calcutta High Court judge, is likely to probe the Chorbagan Puja Committee stampede and deaths, West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday.

A top official said to spruce up crowd management, nine IPS officers - Sumanjit Ray, IG (Border), Mehmud Akhtar, IG (IB), Miraj Khalid, IG (Traffic), Rupesh Kumar, DIG (STF), Shubhankar Bhattacharya, DIG (Traffic), Tarun Haldar, DIG (CID), Soumya Ray, SS (EB), Priyabrata Ray, SP (Traffic) and Deepak Sarkar, SS (CID) - have been assigned crowd-management duties during the festival.

Meanwhile, a high-level committee - disaster management secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, director general of fire services Anuj Sharma and DGP STF Jawed Shamim - visited various puja pandals across Kolkata to inspect all aspects, including entry and exit and fire-related arrangements.


Adhikari said: "The chief secretary will write to the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and if he permits, a sitting judge will head the probe committee. Kolkata Police officials will not be part of the committee."

The CM added: "I will personally hand over compensation cheques of ₹25 lakh on October 20 and 21 to all the families who lost their kin in the accident." DGP Siddhnath Gupta said: "In districts, we held a high-level virtual meeting with all the district magistrates."