Suvendu Adhikari visited the family of two people who died in Saturday’s Chorbagan stampede in Kolkata, according to The Statesman, but the report contains a material contradiction over his official position that requires verification before the account can be treated as fully established.
The report identifies Adhikari as the chief minister of West Bengal and says he met the bereaved Bej family at Birpur village in Purba Bardhaman district. The family lost Tagor Bej and her son, Sandeep, in the stampede. Tagor’s daughter, Agomoni, survived the incident.
Adhikari reportedly travelled by helicopter to the village under Madhabdihi police station and spent around half an hour with the family. He was accompanied by the district magistrate of East Burdwan and the local MLA from the Raina assembly constituency. The report says he met Sanjay, the deceased woman’s husband, and other relatives at their mud house.
During the visit, Adhikari was quoted as saying that he did not have the power to bring back those who had died, but that he would stand beside the affected families and support them through all possible means. The visit followed the stampede in Chorbagan, which occurred during Durga Puja pandal visits and cast a shadow over celebrations across West Bengal.
The incident highlights the public-safety risks created when large crowds converge on temporary religious installations, narrow access routes and event areas without adequate crowd movement controls. The supplied report, however, does not provide details of the location’s capacity, the number of people present, the arrangements made by organisers or police, or the precise sequence that led to the stampede.
Adhikari was also quoted as referring to earlier incidents during Puja, including the deaths of 13 people from electrocution in Kolkata the previous year and flash floods in Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri. He said the government had sought a judicial inquiry into the Chorbagan incident and contrasted its response with that of a previous administration.
The report’s identification of Adhikari as chief minister conflicts with its reference to Mamata Banerjee as his predecessor and former chief minister. It does not explain the constitutional or administrative context of this change, and the supplied material provides no official notification or government document resolving the contradiction. His current designation, the authority under which he visited the family and the status of the reported judicial inquiry therefore require confirmation.
The immediate institutional questions remain whether the inquiry has formally been ordered, which agency will conduct it, what crowd-management permissions were issued for the Chorbagan event and what support will be provided to the surviving family members. Those details are not established in the supplied report.
