Puri Rath Yatra stampede kills 3 as crowd swells to 20k outside temple
Bhubaneswar: A pre-dawn stampede during Rath Yatra festivities in Odisha's temple town Puri left three devotees dead and dozens injured Sunday as over 20,000 people crowded into a space meant for less than a third of that number.
The dead were identified as Premakanta Mohanty, 78, a retired state govt employee from Bhubaneswar; homemaker Basanti Sahu, 42, from Khurda; and Prabhati Das, 52, of Balianta in Bhubaneswar.
They had come with families for "darshan" of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra atop chariots before the sibling deities entered Gundicha temple on the third day of the annual festival. The chariots were parked outside the temple, drawing massive crowds that overwhelmed barriers.
Eyewitnesses attributed the chaos to poor planning and inadequate crowd control measures. They said the surge began as two trucks carrying wooden ladders for the chariots entered the dense crowd around 4am.
"The narrow congregation site, combined with insufficient police presence and scattered palm log ladders near the chariots, resulted in the stampede," eyewitness Chinmay Patra said.
CM Mohan Charan Majhi ordered a probe led by development commissioner Anu Garg and announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each victim's family.
He called the lapses "unforgivable" and transferred Puri district collector S S Swain and SP Vinit Agrawal. DCP-ranked officer V P Pati and commandant Ajay Kumar Padhi were suspended for negligence.
Cops, govt under fire for crowd-control 'fiasco'
Bhubaneswar: Sunday's stampede at Puri in BJP-governed Odisha spotlighted failure of police's crowd control measures. Opposition BJD and Congress attributed the tragedy to govt's incompetence and "favour" shown to BJP workers to gather around the chariots.
While there was a delay on Friday due to a crowd surge, the chariot-pulling ceremony eventually went off smoothly that day and Saturday with over 12 lakh devotees. But alleged mismanagement of a smaller gathering of 5,000-6,000 near Gundicha Temple led to the stampede Sunday.
"The location in front of Gundicha Temple can accommodate a maximum of 5,000-6,000 devotees. Stampedes can occur when chariots are moving. However, tragedy struck before stationary chariots, a first in history," said Binayak Dasmohapatra, a senior servitor of Jagannath Temple.
Police had announced deployment of 275 AI-enabled cameras and drones for real-time crowd monitoring as part of the security and traffic measures. At least two IPS officers were assigned to oversee 5 companies of RAF, 6 SP-rank officers, 7 ASPs, 24 DSPs, 42 inspectors, 189 SIs/ASIs, 12 havildars, 110 home guards and 52 platoons of state police. Despite this, security experts and devotees criticised police for failing to anticipate the massive weekend crowd.
" I suspect the personnel lowered their guard after Friday and Saturday, and did not take any preemptive measure for the remaining days of the festival," said Sahadeb Mohanty, a retired DSP.
Leader of opposition and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik posted on X, "While I refrain from accusing govt of criminal negligence, their blatant callousness undeniably contributed to this tragedy."
State Congress president Bhakta Charan Das claimed the entire arrangement was "VVIP and BJP worker-centric".
Govt pushed back against the allegations, pointing out that action had been taken against negligent officers and more would follow after ongoing inquiries."Senior police officers are on the spot to ensure comprehensive crowd control measures," law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said.
Incident caused by 'abysmal failure' of crowd mgmt: Naveen
Prabhati, one of the victims, had travelled in a group of seven.
Her mother Binodini Panda said: 'Thousands pushed through, walking over people.
Some people lifted me and some others, but my daughter remained trapped. By the time we managed to reach her, she was gone.'
According to Basanti's husband Dilip Kumar Sahu, the crowd surged at dawn. 'People started falling, including us. We were trampled. My wife got trapped. We pulled her out and waited for nearly an hour for an ambulance. She was declared dead at the hospital.'
Opposition politicians blamed BJP-led govt for security failures.
Former CM Naveen Patnaik of BJD called it an 'abysmal failure' of crowd management. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said 'no lapses in this responsibility are acceptable'.
Undeterred, thousands of devotees continued gathering for darshan of the deities through the day. 'We are saddened by the tragedy but not scared. Our faith is stronger than our fear,' said Saudamini Sarangi, 65, from Cuttack.
'There was chaos for about an hour but then normalcy returned quickly.
We offered prayers smoothly afterward,' said Sovan Pattnaik of Bhubaneswar.
Police deployed reinforcements, set up barricades and implemented multiple queue systems. 'We appealed to people not to spread rumours. Many were taking photos in the crowd, adding to the challenge,' said DGP YB Khurania. The festival continues through July 8.
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