Kolkata: Shoes, clothing, and other belongings lie scattered near the entrance of the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal
Because they had granted permissions for the pandal, kolkata Police, KMC and fire department have been kept out of the SIT.
He said the panel would examine the roles of Kolkata Police, fire brigade and KMC. “Every allegation will be probed with an open mind,” Justice Roy Saraswati said after visiting the spot on Thursday. She said the role of police may also be scrutinised.
The organising club’s treasurer, Sanjeev Raha alias Sentu, has been arrested in Nadia. Cops have identified him as the announcer who had urged the crowd to move out, saying the pandal was about to collapse. This, amid rain, had triggered the stampede, the SIT suspects. Sentu’s is the eighth arrest in the case. The SIT, headed by retired Calcutta High Court judge Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, also includes Jawed Shamim, ADG, Bengal STF, other state govt officials and a representative of the National Disaster Response Force.
After a meeting at Bhabani Bhawan on Sunday, Adhikari proposed the formation of a fact-finding committee headed by a sitting judge or a retired judge. State govt on Tuesday formed a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, identify causes, fix responsibility and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents.
Kolkata: A locked emergency door, cooler units obstructing movement, a flight of stairs at the exit, inadequate lighting and temporary stalls barely 10 metres from the exit — an SIT investigation into the stampede at Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal has exposed multiple lapses in crowd management at the venue where 19 people died on Saptami evening. At its narrowest spot, the exit passage was merely 2.7 metres wide and 4.7 metres at its widest, the SIT has found. Investigators found that an elevated, gallery-like structure encircled the idol, allowing visitors a 360-degree view but increasing crowd density inside the temporary pavilion. The passage was about 7 feet 7 inches wide.
With no volunteers to guide visitors towards the emergency gate – which doubled as a VIP exit – the passage became a bottleneck when rain triggered a crowd surge. Several people fell at the stairs near the exit and got trampled. Poor lighting and inadequate signage further hampered visitors trying to locate exits.
On Thursday, a forensic team, KP detective department homicide officers and SIT members inspected the site, examining structures, stalls and hoardings with the help of detailed site plans.