Kolkata, Oct. 18 -- The city's rarest and most painful Durga Puja tragedies cast a shadow over the festive celebrations on Sunday, a day after a stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata killed 19 people, including a seven-year-old child, and left 25 others injured. As grieving families collected the bodies of their loved ones from government hospitals, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh and a government job for the family of each deceased victim, along with Rs 5 lakh for every injured person. The government ordered a high-level safety review of major puja pandals, formed a special investigation team and promised a judicial inquiry to establish responsibility for the disaster. Police arrested seven people, including members of the puja organising committee, as questions mounted over crowd management, security arrangements and alleged administrative lapses.
The tragedy disrupted the second day of Durga Puja, with several major pandals temporarily shut as authorities moved to prevent further incidents during the festive rush. The government deployed nine senior Indian Police Service officers with experience in crowd management to assist Kolkata Police, which already had 37 IPS officers, including the police commissioner, on its strength.
Adhikari held a high-level meeting at the CID headquarters at Bhavani Bhavan to review the circumstances surrounding Saturday night's stampede.
He later visited the Lal Bazar police headquarters and the control room at Arakhya Bhavan in Salt Lake to assess security arrangements.
He directed Director General of Police S N Gupta to ensure that police station officers verified crowd-control measures at major pujas.
The chief minister said the government would seek permission from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to appoint a sitting high court judge to head the judicial inquiry. If a sitting judge was unavailable, a retired judge would lead the investigation. The findings are expected to be made public within a month to 45 days, he said.
A special team led by state disaster management department secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, Fire Services Director General Anuj Sharma and Special Task Force Additional Director General Javed Shamim began inspecting major puja pandals on Sunday, starting with Santosh Mitra Square and subsequently visiting other prominent venues, including Tala Prattoy.
The panel decided that food stalls would not be permitted near entry and exit gates, separate VIP entrances would be removed, and organisers would have to ensure wider exits, sufficient lighting and the removal of bottlenecks caused by temporary enclosures.
Authorities also indicated that visitor numbers could be regulated wherever necessary.
Adhikari said the stampede occurred at a common entry and exit passage rather than inside the puja pandal.
He alleged that guards had divided the passage with a rope and rushed to seek shelter when it began raining.
The pandal was dimly lit, he said, adding that the consequences could have been worse had the incident occurred inside the structure.
The Officer-in-Charge of Girish Park police station was removed following the incident. Investigators are examining the role of the organisers, temporary home guards, police personnel and officials who granted permission for the event.
Adhikari said the home guards deployed at the pandal would be investigated for alleged negligence, noting that it was their third year performing such duty after earlier deployments in 2024 and 2025.
He said Kolkata Police, the civic body and the state fire services department had been excluded from the special investigation team to help ensure an impartial probe.
Seven people were arrested, including the Chorbagan puja committee's general secretary and vice-president. They were produced before a court and remanded in police custody until October 28. Police registered a suo motu case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The investigation comes amid allegations that the local police station failed to anticipate the scale of the crowd and deploy sufficient personnel.
A senior police officer said the pandal's recognition in the state government's Shera Shera awards category may have contributed to a sudden increase in visitors in the Girish Park area. The inquiry is expected to establish how the crowd surge developed and whether adequate preventive measures were in place.
Behind the official announcements, families struggled to come to terms with their losses. Relatives waited outside Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital and NRS Medical College and Hospital as post-mortems were completed and bodies handed over for the final rites.
Vinod Haldar, a rickshaw puller from New Town, lost his 17-year-old daughter in the stampede. Overcome with grief, he said, "I have nothing left. There will never be a Durga Puja in our lives again."
In another part of the state, the bodies of Tagor Bhej, 37, and Sandip Bhej, 14, reached their home in Madhabdihi in Burdwan district at around 7.30 pm on Sunday, escorted by police vehicles and senior officers.
Their arrival brought mourning to a household that had expected to celebrate the festival.
Adhikari said 19 people had died, including 18 residents of West Bengal, while 25 were injured.
Two injured people remained in intensive care, and 23 others were expected to be discharged soon. Magistrates and deputy superintendent of police-ranked officers were assigned to supervise the handover of bodies and remain with families until the cremations were completed.
The chief minister said he would visit bereaved families on October 20 and 21 to hand over compensation cheques.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah cancelled his scheduled puja engagements to visit 14 injured people receiving treatment at a private hospital.
Adhikari also visited the facility with Shah. The transfer of injured patients from Calcutta Medical College and Hospital to the private hospital had prompted protests by some junior doctors, although some senior doctors argued that grievances should not be aired during a major emergency.
The disaster also triggered a political confrontation.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress accused the police and administration of failing to ensure adequate crowd control and emergency arrangements.
Party leaders questioned the alleged role of Debdeep Adhikari, identified in publicity materials as the puja committee's chief patron and claimed by the opposition to be the chief minister's nephew.
Mamata Banerjee-led TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee demanded accountability, asking, "When will you put the culprit nephew in jail, Suvendu Babu?" MLA Kunal Ghosh also questioned the circumstances surrounding the organising committee and the transfer of injured victims.
The party called for a thorough investigation into anyone found responsible. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said he had no knowledge of Debdeep Adhikari's alleged involvement, while BJP MLA Ratna Debnath criticised the police over crowd management.
The government said its priority remained relief for victims and their families. Adhikari also announced that the Bijoya Sammilani scheduled for October 26 would be held on a subdued scale, with puja committees discussing lessons from the tragedy.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.