Chorebagan pandal tragedy: Kin grapple with loss of loved ones as jovial camaraderie turns into nightmare

Relatives pay tribute to a victim of the Chorebagan pandal stampede outside the Kolkata Police morgue on Sunday. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Half a day into the Chorebagan pandal tragedy, shock and disbelief were still writ large on the faces waiting outside the Kolkata Police morgue in central Calcutta.

They had come to claim the bodies of their loved ones, crushed to death during the pandal stampede on Saturday evening. Coping with the loss was one thing. Struggling with the suddenness of the loss was another.

Till Sunday night, the death toll remained at 19. Fourteen injured persons were being treated at a private hospital.

Sambhu Nath Poddar lost his daughter, Sriparna, 26, a nurse at a cancer care institute in New Town.

"She studied nursing in Bengaluru and got this job a year ago. She was happy with her life. Till yesterday, I was a proud father. Today, I have to bear the heaviest load in this world: that of my only child," said Poddar, a businessman from Baidyabati in Hooghly.

Sriparna, who lived in New Town for work, was out pandal hopping with three friends. Her father got a call from one of her friends around 6.45pm. She said Sriparna was "unconscious and was being taken to the hospital".

Some 20 minutes later, he got another call, this time saying his daughter was dead.

Poddar oscillated between shock, grief and rage. "Sheer incompetence led to this tragedy. The government is responsible for this," he said.

Pranjal Sarkar, 13, from Agarpara, was the youngest victim. Pranjal was part of a large group, including his parents, his friends and their parents.

"As the crowd surged suddenly, many visitors tripped and fell to the ground. My wife and I somehow managed to take a few steps toward the exit. The volunteers urged people to step out of the pandal. Outside, I could not see my son.

"Some of us tried to help people get up and bring them to safety. One of my son's friends was among them. She was almost unconscious. We gave her CPR. Her mother was looking for her. After 20 minutes, we saw police arriving," his father told reporters.

"I went back inside the pandal to look for my son. On my way, I helped five people back on their feet. But my son was nowhere. Someone told me that a kid had been taken inside the pandal. I ran towards that direction. At the gate, I saw a person sitting with an oximeter and a can of oxygen. I saw my son lying there. He was bare-bodied. He was unconscious. I tried giving CPR. I pleaded with the cops for an ambulance. But they looked at me helplessly. I requested people to give me a motorbike. A motorcyclist took my son and me to medical college. There, the doctors declared him dead," the man said, breaking down as he spoke.

Kulvinder Kaur, whose brother-in-law, Ranveer Singh, is among the injured, said the crowd in the pandal suddenly swelled as it rained outside.

"The exit was cramped. A wave of visitors pushed us forward, but those in front of us did not move. People lost balance and fell to the ground. A policeman was hard to spot," she said.

Fourteen people, including Singh, have been admitted to Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals Kolkata. "Five are in critical care, and nine are in the general ward. All of them are stable as of now," said a spokesperson for the hospital.

Dilip and Dipali Ghosh, residents of Baranagar, were among the dead. Dilip worked at the electrical maintenance wing of the Indian Statistical Institute.

"I still can't believe they are gone. My life changed within a span of 15 minutes yesterday," said son Pritish, 25.

"The organisers are to blame. But the administration is equally responsible," he said.

On Sunday, a group of RSS cadres was busy coordinating between the bereaved families and morgue authorities.

The site of the disaster, barely a kilometre from the morgue, remained barricaded on Sunday. Shreds of clothes, a broken pair of glasses, half of a headband and torn slippers lay strewn on the ground.

Subham Sonkar, 33, was another victim. The Maniktala resident, an employee of a private firm, was out with friends.

On Sunday, his uncle, Sanjay Sonkar, said: "He was the only earning member. He took care of his elderly parents. No amount of money can compensate for this loss. The government has failed."