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.
An organization named 'Forum for Durgotsav' organizes blood donation camps in Kolkata every year before Durga Puja. Majumdar said that this year the Chorbagan Public Worship Committee was not accepting VIP passes. Due to this the crowd increased considerably.
Ruma Rudra, a local resident of Chorbagan area, said, "As soon as it started raining, 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 increased so much that four people fell on a girl."
Questioning the role of Kolkata Police, a resident of Salt Lake area said that he could not get any information about the condition of the roads on the helpline.
Retired Kolkata Police officer Sanaullah Khan said that experienced crowd management officers have been removed and new cadre officers have been deployed, who do not have experience in handling crowds during puja.
West Bengal Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee said, "Due to the rain, a situation like a pressure cooker was created."
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.
Residents of Chorbagan area claim that before Durga Puja, a new committee was formed by removing the old committee, in which people close to BJP were included. Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari himself inaugurated this pandal.
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.
