Patna, Aug. 10: A pall of gloom descended over Praduman Gupta's house in Tamganj village under Forbesganj sub-division of Araria district after his death in a stampede in Jharkhand's Deoghar district on Monday.
The news reached his native village, 300km northeast of Patna, around 8am. "I came to know of the shocking news through news channels. I tried to contact other residents with Praduman but in vain," said Diwakar Gupta, his cousin.
Praduman, a foodgrain dealer in his early forties, left for Deoghar on Thursday with a 10-member group to offer holy water to Lord Shiva on the second auspicious Monday of the holy month of Shravan. The fate of others in his group is not known. Araria district magistrate Himanshu Sharma said he was yet to receive official communication on Praduman's death. "I received information from reporters and have asked officials to verify," he said over phone from Araria.
Araria superintendent of police (SP) Sudhir Kumar Porika said: "I am in the dark and can't comment." Only Deoghar deputy commissioner Amit Kumar confirmed that of the five dead people identified so far, one was from Araria district, as indicated in his Aadhaar card. "Efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the other victims," he said. The bodies are at a morgue.
Unconfirmed reports said three more people, from Bihar's Madhepura, Darbhanga and Gaya districts, had died. The district magistrates of these districts, however, did not confirm the casualties.