Probe panel blames district admin, police for Patna stampede

A probe into the Patna stampede that killed 33 people, mostly women and children, during Dussehra celebrations two months ago, has found that the failure of the administration and the police led to the tragedy of this magnitude.

The stampede took place when the people were returning after the Ravan Vadh ceremony at the Gandhi Maidan.

The panel, which probed the incident, said rumours of a live power line having snapped triggered the stampede. "A big crowd was exiting from the southern gate of Gandhi Maidan at that time. There was a cable TV wire on the ground near the gate at that time, which people misunderstood as a live wire. This prompted the crowd to rush to the gates," said Principal Secretary (Home) Amir Subhani, who headed the two-member panel.

Besides Subhani, Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Gupteshwar Pandey was also a member of the committee.

Subhani also said there were also reports of chain-snatching and molestation, which aggravated the commotion.

The probe panel has put the blame squarely on the local administration, district police, Patna Municipal Corporation and traffic police. "We found several deficiencies in arrangements due to which stampede could not be checked. There was no detailed crowd management plan for the event. High mast lights near the place of incident was not functioning, additional lights were not installed. We also found that deputed magistrates were insufficient for the crowd and some of them were even absent from the duty," said Subhani.

He added that there were no arrangements for loudspeakers to direct movement of people and traffic was not stopped to facilitate the exit of the crowd. "After paying attention to all aspects, we found the district administration, the police, the Patna Municipal Corporation and traffic police were at fault. It's up to the government to initiate proceedings against the responsible officials."

Pandey said, "We are not here to take any names. We all know who headed the local administration, district police and Municipal Corporation at that time."

The state government had removed Patna District Magistrate Manish Verma, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Mahraj, Patna Divisional Commissioner N Vijayalaxmi and Patna DIG Ajitabh Kumar 48 hours after the incident.

The committee has also made a series of recommendations to the government to prevent such tragedies. "We have recommended installation of watch towers and control rooms on all four gates of the Gandhi Maidan. We have also suggested that the government should promote Dussehra celebrations in other parts of the city on a small scale to reduce the pressure on the Gandhi Maidan," said Pandey.

The committee has also recommended that the district magistrate and SSP should personally visit the venue at least 24 hours before any big event to check the arrangements.