Kolkata Stampede: Accused Changed SIM Cards To Hoodwink Police

(MENAFN- IANS) Kolkata, Oct 23 (IANS) Sanjib Raha a.k.a. Sentu, the person who was first detained and then arrested by Kolkata Police as a suspect of making the misleading announcement on a microphone on October 17 that triggered panic among devotees at the Durga Puja pandal of Chorbagan Sarbojanin in North Kolkata, had changed his mobile phone SIMs several times to hoodwink police before he was finally arrested.

Raha, the treasurer of the organising committee for the community Durga Puja of Chorbagan Sarbojanin, was detained by the Kolkata police from Nadia district of West Bengal and brought to Kolkata for interrogation. Thereafter, after his marathon interrogation at the Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar in central Kolkata, he was finally arrested on Thursday night, an official said.

“Immediately after the tragedy, Raha disabled his original mobile SIM, left Kolkata and went underground. However, he had been interacting with his family members and friends in Kolkata using other SIMs. Investigators tracked eight such suspicious numbers he used to contact his family members and friends since the tragedy took place. Based on that information, our men finally detained him first from Nadia on Thursday and then arrested him after integration,” said a city police officer.

Following his interrogation, the investigating officers also found that the misleading public announcement was made from a separate room outside the pandal, which was exclusively reserved for organising committee members and special guests.

During the interrogation of Raha, the investigating officials found another person who was with him when he made the misleading announcement.

That person, also a neighbour of Raha in North Kolkata, is also missing since the tragedy, and the cops are trying to track him as well.

The misleading announcement was made at a time when chaos had already started surfacing within the pandal because of the rain, with those outside trying to get inside the pandal to save themselves from the rain and those within the pandal refusing to go out for the same reason.

At that time, a misleading announcement was made, asking people to evacuate the pandal immediately for fear of the structure collapsing, triggering extreme panic and prompting the pilgrims to rush out, with some even moving towards the entry gate to exit, ultimately leading to the stampede.

Currently, two parallel probes are being carried out into the stampede tragedy. The first probe is by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police, headed by an assistant commissioner-rank officer attached to the detective department (DD) of the city police.

The second probe is being conducted by a judicial probe panel, constituted by the state government, headed by Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati (retired).

The judicial panel is supposed to complete its investigation and submit a report to the state government within the next three months.

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