The Kolkata stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbojonin Durga Puja pandal killed 19 people on Saturday, including a seven-year-old boy, two teenage friends, a nurse and a promising young swimmer, after a surge of visitors overwhelmed the venue’s narrow entry and exit arrangements.
The victims included Abhishek Srivastava, a 38-year-old medical representative from Muzaffarpur, and his seven-year-old son Ayansh. Abhishek had taken his family to the pandal with relatives because he wanted to experience Kolkata’s Durga Puja celebrations. Relatives said the father and son were walking towards the exit when Ayansh fell and people continued moving over him. Abhishek stayed behind to pull his son out and was also caught in the crush.
Abhishek’s wife, Niva Kumari, survived with injuries. His relative said she did not know that her husband and son had died until their bodies reached her residence in Panihati. Another relative, Rajesh, was admitted to hospital with severe chest injuries.
Sriparna Poddar, a nurse at the Tata Medical Cancer Centre and the only daughter of her parents, had gone to the pandal with friends after completing her shift. Family friends and neighbours described her as a lively person who regularly helped people in her neighbourhood. She was a resident of Hooghly district.
Arti Sarkar Biswas, 45, had travelled from Nadia district with her husband, Ram Sarkar, and her sister. Ram, who works as kitchen staff at Maniktala ESI Hospital, said they had waited in a queue for nearly two hours as rain began. He alleged that volunteers released the control ropes, triggering a sudden rush into the pandal. According to him, the venue had one entrance and one exit, and the crowd surged from both sides when some people who had exited turned back.
Ram said it took him about 20 minutes to pull Arti out. He performed CPR and called for an ambulance, but said there were no police personnel present at the time to manage or disperse the crowd. Arti’s sisters survived with minor injuries.
The stampede also claimed the lives of Barnali Halder, 17, and Tania Biswas, 18. The Class 11 students, who lived near each other in the Nutan Pally area of Gouranganagar, had set out with five other friends to visit several pandals across Kolkata. Their families said the two had been close since childhood and studied in the same class.
Piyush Kanoria, the MLA of Rajarhat New Town, received the bodies at the morgue and spoke about Barnali’s plans to gift a plant to her uncle. Barnali’s father works as a rickshaw-puller.
Pranjal Sarkar, a 13-year-old from Agarpara in North 24 Parganas, had visited Kolkata with his family before a planned trip to Shillong. His uncle said the group of 13 was separated amid the pushing and that Pranjal slipped from his parents’ grasp. He had secured second place in a state-level swimming competition and was scheduled to leave for the trip on Sunday morning.
Akriti Kumari Raut, a Madhyamik examinee from Bally’s Anandanagar, was also among those killed. She had visited the pandal with three sisters and relatives from Gaya, Bihar. A local resident said some e-commerce companies had issued VIP cards for as little as Rs 59, leading to a large turnout. The resident alleged that organisers eventually stopped accepting visitors carrying those cards.
