Overview
- A crowd crush at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal on October 17 killed 19 people and injured about 25, after a loudspeaker announcement and heavy rain triggered panic inside the temporary structure.
- Kolkata Police report footage from 16 of the 32 CCTV cameras at and around the pandal is unavailable and technical teams are examining cameras and storage to determine whether the loss was a glitch or deliberate tampering.
- Investigations are active on two tracks with police making nine arrests, recording about 60 witness statements, summoning pandal designer Sushanta Shibani Pal and calling 12 on-duty officers for questioning.
- The West Bengal government has appointed a six-member judicial Special Investigation Team led by retired judge Anindita Roy Saraswati with a three-month deadline and a planned evidence-collection phase starting at the end of October.
- The chief minister has ordered immediate statewide reviews of crowd-management and emergency preparedness for upcoming festivals and promised public safety guidelines for puja organisers as officials and residents demand clearer rules on pandal design, entry and exit routes, and trained crowd control.