Kolkata, Oct. 23 -- Forensic experts probing the Chorbagan stampede that claimed 19 lives have flagged serious safety lapses at the

pandal, while CM Suvendu Adhikari on Friday visited the bereaved families and announced a job for the brother of one of the victims.

Adhikari said the Chorbagan Durga Puja stampede that claimed 19 lives was primarily due to human error, describing the loss of lives as "very painful".

Police have detained another Puja committee office-bearer, Kushal Majumdar alias Kalia. The initial observations by the state SIT, headed by retired Calcutta High Court judge Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, points to serious structural and logistical failures by the organisers.

Adhikari on Friday visited the families of Shubham Sonkar at Bagmari Lane and Mithu Mondal at Shyampukur, who died in the stampede. Expressing solidarity with the bereaved families, Adhikari said: "They are part of my family."

Mithu had visited the pandal with her son Sourav. "I have no words to console the families who lost their dear ones during the puja. I came to their homes to stand by them and handed over cheques of Rs 25 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. Assistance from the PM had also reached the families," Adhikari said.

He added that the state government would provide a job to Shubham's brother. The SIT report would be tabled in the Assembly and subsequently made public, he said.

Meanwhile, forensic experts found that the air-conditioned theme pandal lacked the technical capacity to accommodate the massive influx of visitors. The industrial cooling system installed by the committee was inadequate to counter the heat generated by the dense crowd.

Investigators also found that bulky AC towers and air coolers had been poorly positioned along entry and exit routes, obstructing the movement of visitors. Rising humidity inside the enclosed structure heightened the risk of panic among the crowd.

The pandal's layout posed further hazards. The exit passage narrowed sharply, creating a dangerous bottleneck. A flight of stairs immediately outside the main exit caused visitors to trip and fall in the dark, while the designated emergency exit, which also served as the VIP gate, remained locked as the crowd surged during heavy rain. No Puja committee volunteers were present to direct visitors towards alternative exits.

Majumdar, one of the Puja's announcers, appeared at Girish Park police station on Friday and was detained for questioning. Police had arrested the committee's treasurer, Sanjeev Raha alias Sentu, the other announcer, on Thursday. Raha was produced at Bankshall Court on Friday and remanded to police custody until October 28.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.