A crowd-crush incident at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin puja venue in Kolkata on Saturday night killed 19 people, including 33-year-old Shubham Sonkar, a resident of Bagmari, and visitors who had travelled from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to see the city’s Durga Puja celebrations.
Shubham had gone out to view puja installations with her parents and sister on Saptami evening. The family reached Chorbagan after a large crowd had already gathered. During the rush and pushing, Shubham and her sister became separated from their parents. The family later received news of Shubham’s death through a neighbour, according to Anandabazar’s report.
Shubham lived with her parents, sister and brother in a flat near Bagmari Lane in Maniktala. Her father, Ramji Sonkar, is retired, while her brother Sujan is preparing for competitive examinations and her sister Nayana gives private tuition. Shubham worked for a private company and was the principal earning member of the family.
Neighbour Bablu Rahman, who said he had helped raise Shubham, informed her father about the death. He described her as someone who did not like crowded places. Another neighbour, Pradip Debnath, said Shubham was quiet and avoided conflict. The family has been left unable to understand how the incident unfolded, the report said.
The deaths also included visitors from outside West Bengal. Abhishek Srivastava, a medical representative from Bihar, had travelled to Kolkata with his wife Nibha Srivastava, their child and other family members. Abhishek and his child both died in the incident. Nibha was informed about the death of her child, but relatives had not yet told her about her husband’s death, according to the report. She was subsequently sent to her home in Bihar.
Among those injured was Manna Yadav, who had travelled from Uttar Pradesh with her son Suresh. The pair were staying at the home of Manna’s brother, Jogendra Yadav, in Tollygunge. Manna and her brother had taken their children out to see the puja when the incident occurred.
The other people reported dead were Shriparna Poddar, 26; Mithu Mondal, 45; Akriti Kumari, 17; Barnali Haldar, 17; Arati Sarkar Biswas, 45; Tagar Bez, 37; Tania Biswas, 18; Kalpana Jana, 46; Bikash Bhattacharya, 66; Sneha Bhandari, 20; Sandeep Bez, 14; Piyali Pramanik, 25; Priya Samaddar, 18; Pranjal Sarkar, 13; Dilip Ghosh, 59; and Dipali Ghosh, 56. Dilip and Dipali were a married couple.
Relatives of the victims from Bihar told the report that earlier preventive measures could have stopped the disaster. The supplied account does not provide details of the venue’s crowd-control arrangements, the number of people present, or any official explanation of the incident. Further information from the authorities on the cause, safety measures and next steps remains awaited.
