The Chorbagan stampede probe has expanded after 19 people died while visiting pandals, with Kolkata Police forming a six-member special investigation team and the state increasing security arrangements for idol immersion across four cities.
The special investigation team is being led by an officer of assistant commissioner rank from the Kolkata Police detective department. Officers from the homicide and anti-rowdy sections are part of the team, according to a report by Anandabazar – West Bengal.
The investigation is proceeding on the basis of a suo motu case registered at Girish Park police station. Police have already arrested six people in connection with the incident. The supplied report does not specify the charges against those arrested or provide details of the circumstances that led to the crowd crush.
The Calcutta High Court has also called for an inquiry commission headed by a retired judge. That commission would provide a separate judicially led examination of the incident alongside the police investigation. The report does not state when the commission will begin its work or identify the retired judge who will lead it.
The incident has also shaped the administration’s preparations for idol immersion on Dashami. The West Bengal government is taking additional precautions in Kolkata, Howrah, Chandannagar and Barrackpore, with 18 Indian Police Service officers assigned to supervise immersion arrangements in the four cities.
Kolkata will have the largest deployment, with 12 of the 18 IPS officers assigned there. The officers are scheduled to remain on immersion duty from 21 October to 24 October. The report does not provide details of the traffic plans, crowd-control measures, route restrictions, emergency medical arrangements or arrangements at individual immersion locations.
The deployment places the city’s festival management under heightened administrative supervision after the Chorbagan deaths. It also brings together two different official responses: a police investigation into the fatal crowd incident and an operational security plan for the next stage of the festival, when large numbers of people and vehicles are expected to move through designated urban routes and immersion areas.
The report also notes a separate court-related development involving CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Sourav Das. Their judicial custody was extended by two days by a special executive magistrate, and that period ends on Wednesday. Both are currently lodged in Tihar jail. The CJP has approached the Delhi High Court seeking their release and challenging the order extending their custody.
For the Chorbagan case, the immediate official steps are the SIT investigation, the arrests already made and the proposed inquiry commission. For immersion management, the assigned IPS officers are scheduled to oversee arrangements in Kolkata, Howrah, Chandannagar and Barrackpore through 24 October.
