Kolkata Police on Thursday, October 22, named Sanib Raha, alias Sentu, as the detained suspect behind the misleading microphone announcement that investigators say triggered the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja stampede in north Kolkata on October 17, which claimed 19 lives, IANS reported.
Source: IANS via hi INDiA
Additional Commissioner (Crime) of Kolkata Police Kunal Agarwal confirmed that Raha was the treasurer of the organising committee of the Chorbagan Sarbojanin community Durga Puja, according to the report. Raha was apprehended from Nadia district earlier on Thursday and brought to the city police headquarters at Lalbazar in central Kolkata for questioning.
He is being questioned on what prompted him to make the misleading announcement and whether he made it on his own or on anyone else's instructions, investigators said. The next legal steps will be taken on the basis of the findings from his questioning, the report said. The allegation against Raha has not been proved in court.
Source: Nation Press
According to investigators, the pandal was already in mounting chaos on the night of October 17 because of sudden rain, with crowds outside pressing inward to shelter from the downpour while those inside were reluctant to step out. At that moment, an announcement was made over the microphone reportedly urging people to evacuate the pandal immediately, citing a fear that the structure might collapse. Investigators say the misleading warning sparked extreme panic, and devotees rushed towards the exit gates at once, resulting in the deadly stampede in which 19 people died.
Two investigations into the tragedy are running in parallel, IANS reported: a Kolkata Police special investigation team headed by an assistant commissioner-rank officer of the detective department, and a judicial probe panel constituted by the state government and headed by retired Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, which is to submit its report within three months.
Seven people, including the puja committee's secretary and vice-president, were arrested earlier in the case, and police action against people linked to the organising committee and the pandal's security arrangements has been reported as the wider probe continues.