Many people have praised Kolkata Police for handling the huge crowd during Durga Puja.
However, this year, questions are being raised on the role of the police administration after 19 people died in a stampede at Chorbagan, one of the largest public puja pandals in North Kolkata, on the Saptami night of Durga Puja.
It is seen in many videos going viral on social media that after it rained on Saturday evening, an announcement was made in the pandal that the pandal may collapse due to rain. Immediately after this there was chaos.
Many eyewitnesses and local people informed the local media about this incident.
It has also been complained in many posts on social media and statements of eyewitnesses that there were problems in handling the crowd and the access roads to the pandal were narrow. There is nothing new about huge crowd in Kolkata during Durga Puja.
According to a survey by an organization named ANT Corporation, published on September 30, 2025, 48,000 people came to watch the puja every hour at Santosh Mitra Park near Sealdah in central Kolkata.
More than 25,000 people visited the pandals of popular puja committees like Tridhara Akalbodhan and Behala Nutan Dal every hour.
However, residents of Kolkata say that in their memory such a major accident has never happened before during Durga Puja.
Political analyst Paulmi Nag wrote in a post on Facebook, "In the 34-year rule of the Left and the 15-year rule of the Trinamool, not a single person has been crushed to death during Durga Puja. No matter what the Left does, no matter what the Trinamool does, they could not do this during the biggest festival of this state."
This year, Kolkata Police had announced that 12,000 policemen would be deployed across the city during Durga Puja. However, many people present in Chorbagan complained that no policeman was seen at the spot at the time of the accident.
Kolkata Police has arrested seven people associated with organizing the puja. He has been charged with culpable homicide.
Most of these people were handling the responsibilities of security and crowd management.
On the day of Panchami, a video went viral on social media. In this, the crowd can be seen breaking the barricade and entering the Chorbagan public puja pandal and pushing the policemen. Many people were afraid of an accident.
Anoy Gupta, who came to see the pandal, told BBC Bangla, "It takes 10 minutes to walk from the road to the pandal, but people were made to wait in the line for an hour. The line was not moving forward. But every moment more people were joining the line. There was no 'flow' for people to move forward in the line."
He said, "When the line moved ahead after waiting for one and a half hour, one had to walk a lot to see the people and go up to have darshan of the idol. There too there were long queues of people. If someone fell ill there, there was no way to take them out."
"A man standing in line behind me fainted while asking for water, but he had no way out," Gupta said.
Saptarshi Majumdar, a resident of Chandannagar, had gone to see the pandal before the accident on October 17.
Based on his experience, he said that this year the crowd was more than the last few years and the organizers were finding it difficult to handle it. Due to this, long queues were formed on the roads.
An organization named 'Forum for Durgotsav' organizes blood donation camps in Kolkata every year before Durga Puja. In this camp, those who donate blood are given a VIP card. With the help of this card, they can visit many puja pandals of Kolkata without standing in line.
Majumdar said that this year the Chorbagan Public Worship Committee was not accepting VIP passes. Due to this the crowd increased considerably, because everyone had to stand in the same line.
Two days ago, 'Forum for Durgotsav' had said, "This year, the name of Chorbagan was printed on the Forum card by mistake. We request that no one should try to enter the Chorbagan pandal by showing our card."
According to Saptarshi Majumdar, "There was an atmosphere of darkness and sadness in the pandals built this year. This made the accident on Saturday even more tragic."
Ruma Rudra, a local resident of Chorbagan area, said, "As soon as the rain started, people outside started pressurizing them to come inside. At the same time, people inside did not want to come out because of the rain."
"The crowd inside grew so much that four people fell on a girl. This is just one incident, many such incidents have happened."
He said, "Every time there is a crowd in the pandal of Chorbagan, but this year the crowd was much more."
However, many people complained that the narrow access roads to the pandal had made the situation more scary.
Kolkata Police has been praised every year for handling the crowd and traffic during Durga Puja. Even the management of Kolkata Police during Durga Puja has been presented as a 'case study' in many states of the country.
But many people say that this year the situation is completely different.
A resident of Salt Lake area told BBC Bangla that he called the Lalbazar helpline to know whether the road to Kolkata station in Chitpur was open or closed. But on the helpline they could not be told what was the condition of the roads.
He said, "The road is closed, but the police themselves are not aware of it. As a resident of Kolkata, this incident is new to me."
On the other hand, many residents of Kolkata have raised questions on crowd management during Durga Puja this year.
They allege that this year there is more traffic jam than last year and people are not getting information about which road will be closed when and where.
Sanaullah Khan, a retired Kolkata Police officer, told BBC Bangla, "The officers who were earlier responsible for crowd management during Durga Puja in Kolkata have now been sent to other parts of Bengal."
"At present, many officers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar cadre have been given posts in Kolkata Police. Most of them have no experience of handling crowds during puja in Kolkata."
According to eyewitnesses, thousands of people had gathered at the Chorbagan public puja pandal in the evening. When it started raining heavily around 7.30 in the evening, many people ran to take shelter inside this puja pandal situated in the middle of narrow streets.
On the other hand, the people present inside the pandal were not able to come out. People trapped outside in the rain also started pushing to go inside.
West Bengal Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee said, "Due to the rain, a situation like a pressure cooker was created. When it suddenly started raining, the situation became critical."
Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari said that according to initial information received from the Assistant Police Commissioner present at the spot, the incident started after the announcement of a private security agency and some people blowing whistles.
In several videos of the incident going viral on social media, the crowd management staff of the pandal can be heard announcing on the loudspeaker that 'the pandal may collapse due to rain.' After this there was a stampede.
Residents of Chorbagan area claim that members of the Chorbagan Universal Durga Puja Committee were forced to resign before Durga Puja. After this, a new committee was formed, in which Devdeep Adhikari, close to BJP, was also included. He is the nephew of Chief Minister Subhendu Adhikari.
Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari himself inaugurated this pandal.
Anindya Bhowmik and his daughter Pratyusha Banerjee, close to Jayant Banerjee, former secretary of Chorbagan Public Durga Puja Committee, made the allegation on social media.
He said, "Pratyusha was not associated with any political party. She was forcibly thrown out. The former committee had performed the puja earlier, but BJP leaders took over the club and performed a new puja and demolished the earlier statue with a bulldozer."
A resident of Chorbagan area, who did not wish to be named, said, "This new committee was failing to handle the crowd right from the beginning. Some policemen and volunteers wearing saffron T-shirts were trying to handle the crowd. But the number of volunteers of this new committee was very less."
Minister of State for Urban Development and Town Planning Department Umesh Roy said that Kolkata Police is investigating the incident and those involved will not be spared.
