Kolkata, Oct 18 West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said that of the 19 people who died in the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal stampede, 18 victims were from various parts of the state, while one deceased hailed from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.
Emerging from a high-level meeting at Bhawani Bhaban, the state CID headquarters, Adhikari said bodies of the deceased would be handed over to family members under supervision of senior officials following the autopsy procedure.
“We have assigned magistrate and DSP-ranked officers to hand over the bodies to the respective families. The officers will remain with the families till the cremations are over,” the CM said.
Adhikari said he will personally visit the families of the deceased on October 20 and October 21 to offer condolences and hand over compensation cheques of Rs 25 lakh.
“I will try and connect with as many families as possible on those two days. I will travel by road to the residences of family members that are within 50 km from Kolkata, and use a helicopter to reach those who live further away, if weather permits,” he said.
Nineteen people died and 25 were injured in the stampede at Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata, following a crowd surge amid rain on Saturday evening.
Adhikari also said that personnel of the Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and fire services department have been kept out of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their role in the stampede.
The chief minister said Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal will soon write a letter to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge, seeking his permission for a sitting high court judge to head the SIT.
“The team comprises an official from the home department, representatives of the DGP and NDRF, and the state disaster management secretary. If the Chief Justice permits, we will have a sitting judge head the SIT, else we will settle for a retired judge,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari also said he has asked for the list of temporary home guards who were on duty at the Chorbagan puja pandal to scrutinise their role in the stampede.
“These home guards are not new recruits. They were appointed during 2024 and 2025,” he said, adding that one of them he tried to talk to “could not even understand, let alone speak, Bengali”.
(PTI News)
