By Sujit Bhar
It began as a pleasant evening in Kolkata, where the traditional Durga Puja celebrations were moving from Maha Sasthi to Maha Saptami. On October 17, just after 7.30 pm, crowds began swelling at the award-winning Chorbagan Sarbojanin puja pandal in north Kolkata, drawn by reports of its extraordinary theme. Young and old alike were eager to catch a glimpse of the idol of their revered goddess.
Initially, the festivities appeared to be proceeding as planned. Yet, there was little visible evidence of a substantial police presence, despite the enormous crowds that major puja pandals routinely attract.
Then the rain came.
A sudden, sharp shower sent thousands of people rushing towards the pandal. With no effective crowd-control system in place, those entering pressed against the slow-moving crowds already inside. The resulting crush triggered what would become one of the deadliest stampedes in Kolkata’s history.
Narrow approach roads and an even narrower exit intensified the pressure. The emergency exit, investigators subsequently found, had reportedly been locked. Matters took a terrifying turn when an announcement over the public address system warned spectators to leave immediately because the temporary structure could collapse at any moment.
Panic overwhelmed reason. In a confined space packed with people, an alarming message without a clearly coordinated evacuation plan could only intensify the chaos.
Nineteen people died, many of them women and children, while at least 25 others were injured. Autopsies reportedly indicated that several victims died from suffocation and ruptured internal organs.
The immediate aftermath brought the familiar sequence of official investigations, arrests and compensation announcements. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 25 lakh to the families of the deceased. The state government also initiated a judicial inquiry.
Kolkata Police registered a suo motu FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and arrested several people, including the puja committee’s treasurer and others associated with the organisation and security arrangements. The Officer-in-Charge of Girish Park Police Station was removed from his post.
But arrests, compensation and inquiries are only the beginning. The central question is whether the tragedy could have been prevented—and who must answer if elementary safeguards were neglected.
THE SIT: SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH
A six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted in consultation with the Calcutta High Court, has been tasked with examining the circumstances surrounding the disaster. The team will be chaired by retired Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati and has been given three months to submit its final report. Justice Saraswati has acknowledged the tight deadline, but said the team will strive to complete the inquiry within the stipulated period.
The SIT includes senior administrative and security representatives, among them the Principal Secretary of the Disaster Management and Civil Defence Department, a representative of the state police chief not below the rank of Additional Director General, representatives of the Home and Hill Affairs Department, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Its mandate extends beyond identifying the immediate trigger. The team is expected to investigate the causes of the crowd surge, examine safe-capacity limits, review CCTV footage and mobile recordings, employ digital three-dimensional scanning where required, and scrutinise the preparedness of the police, civic authorities and puja organisers.
That distinction matters. A stampede can develop within seconds, but the conditions that make it lethal are often created long before the first person falls. Inadequate exits, poor crowd-flow planning, ignored warnings and fragmented responsibility can transform a foreseeable emergency into a mass-casualty event.
The investigation must, therefore, establish not only how the crush occurred, but why the safeguards intended to prevent it failed.
POLITICS AND UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS
The tragedy has acquired a political dimension because the 91-year-old Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Samity had recently undergone a controversial reorganisation, with a new BJP-led committee becoming the subject of political debate and legal scrutiny.
Reports indicate that the committee was restructured twice within a month before the festival, following the resignation of eight members of the previous committee, including then-general secretary Jayanta Banerjee. The new committee was chaired by Bijoy Ojha, the BJP MLA from Jorasanko. BJP North Calcutta district president Tamaghna Ghosh and Debdeep Adhikari, nephew of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, were also associated with the committee.
These connections do not, in themselves, establish responsibility for the deaths. Political affiliation is not evidence of criminal liability, and criticism by political opponents cannot substitute for proof.
Nevertheless, a significant change in management shortly before a major public festival raises legitimate questions about continuity, preparedness and accountability.
Who approved the crowd-management arrangements? Who was responsible for ensuring that emergency exits remained accessible? Were the police and civic authorities informed about the revised committee’s arrangements? Was there a proper handover of safety plans, permissions and operational responsibilities? Were the risks independently assessed, or did the enthusiasm surrounding an ambitious theme overshadow elementary precautions?
These are questions for investigators to answer through documentary evidence, testimony, inspection records and digital footage—not conclusions to be dictated by political parties.
The committee’s reported political connections make transparency particularly important. Every relevant person and institution must remain open to scrutiny, irrespective of political position. Equally, nobody should be condemned merely because of party affiliation or family connections.
THE AWARD: RECOGNITION WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY?
The controversy deepened because the pandal had received the Serar Sera-3, or Best of the Best, Devi Durga Samman 2026, awarded by the state Information and Cultural Affairs Department and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The recognition came under sharp criticism from the Trinamool Congress following the tragedy.
The award raises an uncomfortable question: what exactly should public recognition of a Durga Puja pandal celebrate?
Artistic imagination, craftsmanship, thematic presentation and cultural appeal are integral to the festival. But an elaborate installation can attract enormous crowds, and that popularity must be treated as a foreseeable operational risk rather than an unexpected complication.
The authorities responsible for awards are not necessarily responsible for every aspect of a pandal’s safety. Nor does an award establish that the awarding institutions knew of any dangerous condition. Yet, public recognition should encourage organisers to meet higher standards, not merely reward visual spectacle.
A responsible evaluation system should consider emergency access, crowd-flow design, structural safety, capacity planning, medical assistance, fire precautions and contingency arrangements alongside artistic merit. Safety requirements must be verified, not assumed.
The award controversy must also be approached with care. Political parties may legitimately question the judgment of public bodies, but the investigation must establish whether any specific safety requirement was ignored and by whom. Neither an award nor a political allegation establishes complicity.
NEGLIGENCE, RESPONSIBILITY AND THE LAW
The legal implications extend well beyond those already arrested. The central question is whether the deaths resulted from acts or omissions that breached legal duties owed to the public.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, provides for criminal liability in cases involving death caused by negligence, including under Section 106 where its requirements are satisfied. Depending on the evidence, other provisions may also apply. Investigators must establish the elements of each alleged offence, including the conduct and responsibilities of the accused and the connection between that conduct and the deaths.
The reportedly locked emergency exit is particularly significant. An emergency exit is not a decorative feature or a box to be ticked on an inspection form. It is a potentially life-saving route whose accessibility can determine whether a crowd escapes or becomes trapped.
Responsibility may extend to those who controlled access to the exit, those charged with inspecting it, and anyone who knew—or ought reasonably to have known—that it was obstructed or locked.
The public-address announcement also demands close scrutiny. Was there a genuine structural emergency? Who authorised the announcement? Was its wording proportionate to the danger? Was a coordinated evacuation plan in place, with trained personnel directing people towards safe exits?
An alarm without clear instructions can transform apprehension into panic, particularly when thousands are confined within a restricted space.
Yet, criminal liability cannot be presumed from a tragic outcome alone. The investigation must distinguish deliberate misconduct, culpable negligence, administrative failure and unavoidable circumstances. Arrests are investigative steps, not findings of guilt.
The removal of the Girish Park police station’s Officer-in-Charge raises a further question: the accountability of public officials. Police have a duty to maintain public order and respond to foreseeable threats to safety. Where a major festival attracts enormous crowds, the adequacy of police deployment and crowd-management arrangements deserves rigorous scrutiny.
Investigators must establish what the police knew, whether their deployment matched anticipated attendance, and whether timely intervention could have prevented the crush.
Administrative action, however, cannot substitute for a reasoned investigation. If official negligence is established, responsibility must be fixed through lawful procedures. If individual officers acted appropriately, but were failed by a wider system, that too must be documented.
THE RIGHT TO SAFETY
A religious festival is an expression of faith, culture and community. But the freedom to celebrate cannot be separated from the responsibility of public authorities to protect life.
Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. The Supreme Court has interpreted this guarantee broadly, recognising that protecting life requires more than refraining from unlawful killing. Public institutions must take reasonable steps to protect people against foreseeable dangers within their sphere of responsibility.
This does not mean that every accident automatically constitutes a constitutional violation. The facts, applicable legal duties and conduct of the relevant authorities must be examined. Nevertheless, when a mass gathering is permitted, facilitated or regulated by public bodies, the adequacy of preventive arrangements becomes a matter of public law as well as public administration.
The right to life cannot be meaningful if the systems designed to protect it disappear when crowds gather.
THE MORAL FAILURE
Nineteen deaths cannot be reduced to a statistic in a government report. Each victim was a person whose family expected a festive evening to end in happiness, not bereavement. The deaths of women and children make the tragedy especially distressing, although every life lost carries equal moral significance.
Durga Puja celebrates the triumph of good over evil, the protection of the vulnerable and the restoration of order. The apparent failure to protect devotees gathered before the goddess presents a painful contradiction between the festival’s values and the circumstances of the deaths.
The lesson extends beyond Kolkata. India’s temples, religious festivals, political rallies, sporting events and public celebrations repeatedly bring large numbers of people into confined spaces. Whenever crowd capacity exceeds safe limits, exits become inaccessible, warnings are mishandled or officials fail to coordinate, the consequences can be catastrophic.
The answer cannot be limited to compensation after lives have been lost. Safety audits must be meaningful, emergency exits must remain open, crowd capacity must be enforced, and responsibility must be clearly assigned before an event begins.
The investigation must proceed independently and establish the facts without political interference. If negligence is proved, accountability must follow through due process. If regulatory gaps contributed to the tragedy, those gaps must be addressed.
Faith brings people together in the expectation of peace, devotion and collective joy. The duty of the state and those who organise public gatherings is to ensure that this trust is not betrayed.
A celebration becomes a public failure when preventable danger is ignored. The true test of governance is not the compensation announced after a disaster, but the lives protected before it.
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