KOLKATA: The six-member special investigation team led by Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, retired judge of Calcutta High Court, probing the Durga Puja pandal stampede incident at Chorbagan in northern part of the city, which claimed 19 lives and injured 25 people, will sit on a meeting with its members soon.
The SIT will also make an on-the-spot visit to Chorbagan on Muktaram Babu Street to determine the exact cause of the incident happened on 17 October evening. While speaking to a Bengal news channel on Thursday, Justice Roy Saraswati said this adding that that the three-month deadline to submit the SIT probe report was inadequate, though the team would make every effort to meet it.
After consulting the High Court, the state government formed the six-member SIT headed by the retired judge to find out the cause of the incident. The panel has also been tasked with recommending measures to prevent similar incidents in coming days.
The Suvendu Adhikari government has also set a deadline of three months to submit the probe report.
"SIT members will meet soon to chalk out a roadmap for the investigation. We will make on-the-spot visit to the site to ascertain the cause of the incident," Justice Roy Saraswati told the news channel.
She said, "It is a short duration, but we will try our best to meet the deadline." The inquiry will also look into whether the Chorbagan Sarbojonin Durgotsav Committee puja pandal premises were equipped with adequate safety measures like crowd management and how the movement of people through entry and exit points may have contributed to the disaster.
The SIT will reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the stampede, including the initial surge and its escalation. The probe team members will also explore several possible triggers, from overcrowding and bad weather to rumours, public announcements, whistles, sudden movements and panic spreading among visitors. They will also examine whether electrical outages or structural shortcomings were instrumental behind the stampede tragedy at Chorbagan.
It will check CCTV footage, mobile phone clips, forensic findings, call records, police station and control room logs, medical records and other evidence related to the incident.
The SIT will also examine the preparedness and response of the organisers, police, private security personnel, volunteers, ambulance services, hospitals, fire services and civic authorities.
Besides the retired judge, the SIT comprises the principal secretary of the Disaster Management and Civil Defence Department, the director general and inspector general of police (DGP) of the Special Task Force, a representative of the West Bengal Police chief not below the rank of additional director general, a representative of the Home and Hill Affairs Department not below the rank of joint secretary, and a representative of the National Disaster Response Force in Kolkata.
Meanwhile, a six-member SIT-led by an assistant commissioner of police of Kolkata Police (KP) inspected the spot again on Wednesday and interrogated civic volunteers and the puja committee members, who were present on the spot on 17 October, and verified the CCTV footages installed at the pandal complex. A team of forensic experts also visited the spot and collected several samples required for the investigation from the area.
The forensic experts also scanned the entire pandal premises with three-D scan technology system.