Overview
- A stampede at the Chorbagan (Chorebagan) Durga Puja pandal on Saturday killed 19 people and injured 25, mostly women and children.
- The West Bengal government on Wednesday issued an order creating a six‑member Special Investigation Team chaired by retired Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati and set a three‑month deadline for its report.
- The SIT is empowered to reconstruct the crowd surge and will examine CCTV and mobile video recordings, call logs, police and control room records, forensic and medical reports, crowd numbers and venue capacity.
- The panel includes senior disaster‑management, STF, state police and NDRF officials after a Calcutta High Court division bench said a serving judge could not head the inquiry under Supreme Court guidance.
- State officials have arrested seven people so far and announced compensation to victims; the SIT’s findings could trigger criminal or administrative action and changes to crowd‑management rules for large puja pandals.