Three months too short to submit stampede probe report, will strive to meet deadline: SIT head

Kolkata: Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati (retired), who heads a special investigation team investigating the Durga Puja stampede in Kolkata, said on Thursday that three months was too short to submit the report, but the team would strive to meet the deadline.

The October 17 stampede at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata led to 19 deaths and left 25 people injured. The six-member special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted in consultation with the Calcutta High Court to probe the cause of the incident and recommend measures to prevent such incidents in future.

"SIT members will meet soon to chalk out a roadmap for the investigation. We will visit the site to ascertain the cause of the incident," the retired judge told a vernacular news channel.


About the three-month deadline set by the state government to submit its report, she said, "It is a short duration, but we will try our best to meet the deadline."

According to the government, the SIT will examine the sequence of events leading to the stampede, including the circumstances that triggered the initial crowd surge, the number of people present at the venue and whether the gathering exceeded its assessed safe capacity.

It will scrutinise CCTV footage, mobile phone clips, forensic findings, call records, police station and control room logs, medical records and other evidence related to the incident.

The SIT will also examine the preparedness and response of the organisers, police, private security personnel, volunteers, ambulance services, hospitals, fire services and civic authorities.

Besides the retired judge, the SIT comprises the principal secretary of the Disaster Management and Civil Defence Department, the director general and inspector general of police (DGP) of the Special Task Force, a representative of the West Bengal Police chief not below the rank of additional director general, a representative of the Home and Hill Affairs Department not below the rank of joint secretary, and a representative of the National Disaster Response Force in Kolkata.