Toll in Kolkata Durga Puja Pandal stampede rises to 19

NEW DELHI, Oct 18: The toll in the stampede amid heavy rain at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal in North Kolkata on Saturday evening, has risen to 19 while 25 injured persons are under medication in hospitals across the city. The dead include four minors and 13 women.

The Kolkata police has arrested seven persons including the organizers. These include Raj Kumar Sewda, the Secretary of the ChorbaganDurga Puja committee, its Vice President ,Santanu Dubey and Biplab Mukherjee who had constructed the bamboo structure. Others who have been arrested are KoushikSaha and PintuDey who were in charge of crowd manangement and Suman Chakraborty and Rajesh Pal who were in charge of private security.

The Kolkata Police has registered a suomotu case at Girish Park police station under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, in connection with the stampede. It has also detained 14 persons and are questioning them.