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

Kolkata: Lack of proper crowd management, narrow lanes, overcrowding and an alleged announcement by the organisers that the pandal could break led to a stampede at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal, resulting in the deaths of 19 people and injuries to more than 25.

At least seven of the 14 people detained have been arrested, including organisers, volunteers and private security agency personnel. Union home minister Amit Shah, West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari and governor RN Ravi visited the injured at the hospital.

A man saw his mother "dying due to suffocation". Abhishek Srivastav (38) and his son, Ayan Kumar Srivastav, from Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, were among the 19 people who died. They had come to a relative's house in Barrackpore for Durga Puja celebrations. Four minors, including Sandip Bhej (14) from Purba Bardhaman and Pranjal Sarkar (13) from Baranagar, also lost their lives.


A helpless father recounted how his daughter, Tania Biswas (18), from Rajarhat-Newtown, and her friend, Barnali Halder (17), died in the stampede.

"I was pulling my rickshaw when I received information about the accident. My daughter came to Kolkata with her friends. Hearing about the accident, I rushed to the hospital. Both Tania and Barnali died," the father, a rickshaw puller, said.

"I saw many losing consciousness. Some sat in my room. The incident happened inside the pandal. There was no crowd management inside the pandal. There were not many cops, only some volunteers. Police force came after an hour and took people in ambulances," an eyewitness who lives near the pandal's exit gate said.

Another eyewitness said he saw heaps of bodies after the accident.

"I came to the pandal with my mother. There was a stampede and I lost my mother. I could not breathe," said a man who lost his elderly mother.

Governor Ravi met the injured and prayed for their speedy and complete recovery, Lok Bhawan sources said.

Adhikari visited the puja pandal at around 1 am for an inspection, along with chief secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal and senior police officials, after meeting the families of the deceased and injured at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.

He announced that the government would provide ₹25 lakh and a government job to the family of each deceased person, and ₹5 lakh to each injured person. The government would bear the entire cost of treatment. He also announced the formation of a special investigation team to probe the incident.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ₹2 lakh to the next of kin of each person who died.