Kolkata: Kolkata Police have arrested seven people, including organisers of Chorbagan Durga Puja, for the pandal stampede that killed at least 19 people, a senior officer said on Sunday.
Police have also registered a suo motu case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
At least 19 people died, and 25 were injured in the stampede at Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata following a crowd surge amid rain on Saturday evening.
Law enforcers detained 14 people on Saturday night in connection with their probe into the incident.
“We have arrested seven people. They were among the 14 detained last night. More arrests may be made,” the IPS officer told PTI.
Those arrested include the puja committee’s secretary, vice-president and two employees of a private security agency, among others, he said.
“Rajkumar Seoda and Shantanu Dubey were the secretary and vice-president, respectively, of the Chorbagan Puja committee. Biplab Mukhopadhyay was responsible for installing the bamboo structure at the pandal, while Kaushik Saha and Pintu De were in charge of crowd management,” the officer said.
Suman Chakraborty and Rajesh Pal, employees of the private security agency, were also apprehended, he said.
“The process of identifying the bodies is underway,” the officer said, adding the post-mortem examination will begin on Sunday.
