Chorbagan Durga idol immersion cleared under police watch amid stampede probe

The Chorbagan Durga idol will be immersed at Nimtala Ghat under police supervision. The pandal will remain preserved as the SIT probes the stampede that killed 19 people.Kolkata,Oct 23, 2026 23:40 ISTThe Durga idol of Chorbagan Sarbojanin will be immersed at Nimtala Ghat in Kolkata on Saturday under strict police supervision as the investigation into the stampede that killed 19 people continues, a senior officer told news agency Press Trust of India.The Special Investigation Team, constituted under the supervision of the Calcutta High Court, has cleared the immersion. The court has directed that the puja pandal be preserved in its existing condition for the investigation.“There will be a good number of policemen accompanying the idol during its immersion tomorrow,” the officer told PTI on Friday.Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand had earlier said the puja committee sought permission for the immersion, which would have to be completed within the stipulated time and in accordance with the prescribed guidelines. The stampede took place on the evening of Mahasaptami on October 17. An announcement that the pandal was collapsing allegedly triggered panic and a rush among visitors, killing 19 people.SIT head and retired judge Anindita Roy Saraswati said on Thursday that there was no objection to the immersion as long as the pandal was preserved in its existing condition for the investigation. A portion of the structure may have to be dismantled to remove the idol, with the work being conducted under police supervision. A Kolkata Police source told PTI that forensic experts investigating the incident had reportedly raised concerns over whether the air-conditioning and ventilation systems were adequate for the heavy crowd.“They have suggested that the 134-tonne air-conditioning system might have been sufficient had the pandal been less crowded or crowd movement better controlled,” the source said.Preliminary post-mortem findings reportedly indicated asphyxia as the cause of death, leading to further scrutiny of the ventilation arrangements and the movement of visitors inside the pandal, the officer said. The area around the pandal has remained cordoned off since the incident while investigators examine the circumstances that led to the deaths.Police have arrested two announcers associated with the puja committee, taking the total number of arrests to nine. Sanjib Raha, also known as Sentu, was arrested in Nadia on Thursday, while Kushal Majumdar was apprehended in Kolkata's Girish Park area on Friday.Majumdar's Facebook page later carried a handwritten note explaining why he had announced that the pandal was collapsing. This raised questions about how posts were published from his account after his arrest.“Majumdar would not have had the opportunity to publish the posts after being taken into custody,” a policeman told PTI, suggesting that an acquaintance or relative might have uploaded them.In the note, Majumdar claimed that he had been associated with the puja for 20 years and apologised on behalf of the committee members for the tragedy. He also claimed that he had visited the club organising the puja shortly before the incident, when senior and junior officers from Girish Park police station were present. According to him, he and another committee member went to fetch tea for the officers before returning to their work at the club.Majumdar claimed that they heard a noise about 10 to 15 minutes later, following which the officers left the club. He said Kabir, the son of the puja committee's secretary, then told him that the rear portion of the pandal had collapsed.“I was about to leave when a police officer told us to announce on the public address system. When I went to the front, the person who had been making announcements was no longer there,” Majumdar wrote, claiming that he had to make the announcement despite having no prior experience.He said he asked the police to block access to the pandal before making the announcement. “Since Kabir had said that the rear portion of the pandal had collapsed, I said, ‘Do not enter the pandal’,” the note said. Majumdar added that the loudspeaker was directed towards Central Avenue, Muktaram Babu Street, Amar Basu Sarani and Parbati Ghosh Lane, rather than towards the inside of the pandal or the adjoining ground.The claims in the note could not be independently verified. The idol immersion will proceed under police supervision while the SIT continues its investigation and the pandal remains preserved as directed by the court.- Ends