The West Bengal government has formed a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by retired judge Anindita Roy Saraswati, to investigate the Chorbagan pandal stampede in Kolkata that killed 19 people during the puja period. The team has been asked to establish how the incident occurred and examine whether failures in crowd control, venue capacity, security arrangements or emergency response contributed to the deaths.
The SIT was constituted after the Calcutta High Court directed the state to set up an inquiry under the leadership of a retired judge. The move followed a letter written by West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Agrawal to the Chief Justice of the High Court, according to the report by Sangbad Pratidin – Kolkata. The state has also issued a notification detailing the composition and responsibilities of the committee.
The committee will be headed by retired judge Anindita Roy Saraswati. Its other members include the secretary of the Disaster Management and Civil Defence Department, the director general and inspector general of the Special Task Force, a representative of the National Disaster Response Force, a representative of the Home Department and a representative of the state police director general.
The SIT has been instructed to examine the incident in detail, including the time and location at which the stampede occurred. It will also assess the carrying capacity of the pandal and determine whether the number of visitors exceeded that capacity. These questions are central to establishing how crowd density developed inside or around the venue before the fatal incident.
The inquiry will also examine competing accounts surrounding the disaster. The state notification is reported to include questions about whether rain contributed to the situation and whether a rumour that the pandal had collapsed spread among visitors. The committee will investigate the source and effect of such information as part of its examination of how the crowd movement escalated.
The role of the Kolkata Police and the safety arrangements at the pandal will also fall within the SIT’s terms of reference. The inquiry is therefore expected to cover both conditions at the venue and the actions of agencies responsible for crowd management and public safety.
The state government has directed the committee to complete its investigation and submit a final report within three months. The notification came into effect on Tuesday, and the SIT is expected to visit the incident site shortly. A separate fact-finding team has also been formed in connection with the incident. The report said that Kolkata Police and the municipal corporation were not included in that team.
