Kolkata stampede: Two held for making pandal collapsing announcements

Two persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly causing chaos by announcing that a portion of the crowd-puller Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata was collapsing, leading to the death of 19 people in a stampede, police said.

With this, the total number of arrests in the stampede case has risen to nine.

One of the accused, Sanjib Raha, was detained from Nadia district on Thursday and later put under arrest, while the other, Kushal Majumdar, was held on Friday from the Girish Park area of the metropolis, said a senior officer of Kolkata Police.

“Both of them were making announcements at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal on the evening of the first day of Durga Puja. They were identified by scanning CCTV footage. We arrested Majumdar this morning and took him to our headquarters for questioning. If needed, we may interrogate them together,” the officer said.

According to police, Sanjib Raha was also the treasurer of the Chorbagan Durga Puja committee. Both Raha and Majumdar are residents of Kolkata’s Amar Basu Sarani, just 50 metres from the puja spot.

Raha has been charged under non-bailable sections of the BNS and will be produced in court later in the day, the police officer said.

“We are still piecing together the course of events that led to the stampede. One of the CCTV footage showed the two persons making announcements. They were heard warning revellers that the pandal was collapsing and asking visitors to leave the place immediately. It appeared that the announcements triggered panic and a rush towards the exit point,” he said.

According to the police officer, Raha was absconding since the October 17 incident and had switched off his mobile phone. Investigators tracked eight suspected mobile numbers to trace the accused as he was trying to contact family and friends using different numbers, he added.

The Government has formed a six-member special investigation team in consultation with the Calcutta High Court to probe the cause of the stampede and recommend measures to prevent such incidents in future.