Kolkata: A week after they made their “pandal is collapsing” announcement, one of the two arrested announcers was taken to the temporary VIP room — from where the announcement was made — on Sunday. Cops asked him who instructed them to make the announcement. Cops also made four Chorbagan Durga Puja committee organisers sit with the announcer to verify whether his claim of being instructed to make the announcement was true.
Kolkata Police also recorded the statement of an ACP, the senior-most officer present at the spot at the time of the stampede on Oct 17, and questioned several of the 90-odd cops who were at the pandal’s exit. TOI has learnt that besides the three office-bearers of Chorbagan Sarbojonin who have been arrested, at least one joint secretary and three executive members have been questioned for close to 48 hours. They believe it is important to determine the exact situation at each moment and what was being announced at that time.
“We have recorded statements of 65 witnesses over the past four days, including cops and organisers,” said an officer. I was then asked to leave,” said Abhishek Hore, joint secretary of the organising committee. In particular, they want to find out whether the announcement claiming that “the pandal was collapsing” was made before or after the commotion began. Raha was chiefly responsible for making announcements at the Chorbagan puja, according to a police source. We also need to know why the pandal-hoppers tried to return to the pandal during the rain,” a police source said.
So far, nine persons, including three organising committee members, have been arrested. “I have been questioned for two days by ARS. The police wanted to go through several documents. Investigators are also examining what announcement the puja committee was making when the rush and panic became visible on the CCTV footage. “So far, the inadequate lights, the narrow exits, the shut emergency gate, the sudden rain and the announcement have been identified as causes behind the stampede. However, we now need to fix responsibility of each person who was present there to handle these challenges.
On Sunday, I was asked to open the club almirah since I have the keys to it.