Kolkata, 19 October (H.S.): Within 24 hours of the tragic stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal that claimed 19 lives, the West Bengal state administration (Nabanna) removed the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Girish Park police station. The swift administrative action follows severe allegations of police inaction and gross mismanagement during the fatal crush on Maha Saptami.

OC Sumit Kumar Ghosh has been relieved of his duties following widespread public outrage over the police department's handling of the disaster.

Hirak Dalapati, who is currently serving in the Detective Department of the Kolkata Police, has been assigned to take charge

of the Girish Park police station in addition to his existing responsibilities.

The disaster unfolded on Saturday evening amidst sudden, heavy rainfall. Despite the predictable massive footfall driven by widespread social media hype surrounding the Chorbagan puja this year, crowd management protocols failed completely.

Eyewitnesses and locals leveled serious accusations against the police personnel deployed at the site, alleging that they made no effort to control the surging crowd and purportedly fled the scene when the situation escalated and visitors began suffocating. Furthermore, locals accused the organizers of intentionally dropping ropes to stall and swell the crowd before letting them in, contributing to the fatal pressure that allegedly caused a section of the pandal to collapse and left approximately 30 people trampled.

In response to the tragedy and the ensuing public anger, the state administration promptly ordered the permanent closure of the puja pandal and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 in the adjacent areas. On Sunday morning, detectives from Lalbazar (Kolkata Police Headquarters) visited the site to assess the ground reality. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been officially constituted and is currently conducting a comprehensive probe into the circumstances and systemic failures that led to the tragedy.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh