Announcements over a public address system and a few lights near the exit of Gandhi Maidan on the Ramgoolam Chowk side could have scotched the rumour of snapping of a live wire, which triggered a stampede on the day of Dussehra.

Public announcements that there is no live wire in the vicinity of the Maidan would have smoothened the nerves of the scared revellers and stopped them from running towards the exit. Had the visibility been better, people could have seen for themselves that there was no live wire anywhere close to the gate near Ramgoolam Chowk, where 33 people died in the stampede on October 3.

There are a few high-mast lamps few yards inside the Maidan. But power is supplied to them through underground cable, cancelling out the possibility of any live wire.

A few conductors jutting out of a damaged telephone junction box near the Maidan gate on the Ramgoolam Chowk side are either landline or cable TV connection wires. A few mistook a harmless cable TV wire dangling near the exit as a live wire and raised an alarm, triggering the stampede.

The Telegraph conducted a recce of the stampede spot on Thursday but could not spot any naked electricity wire in its vicinity. Neither was there any overhead electric wire, nor any exposed underground cable. Even the high-mast lamp near the Maidan gate on the Ramgoolam Chowk, which usually receives power through underground cable, has a switch.

Mantu Kumar, who runs a stall of roasted grams near Ramgoolam Chowk, said: “I have been doing business near Gandhi Maidan for the past 10 years and I have never seen any naked electricity wire here. Most wires in the vicinity are those of cable operators. One of these cables was lying on the road on the day of Dussehra. People mistook it as a live wire and the rumour spread like a wildfire.”

People started running towards the pitch-dark exit, triggering the stampede. The high-mast lamp near the Maidan gate on the Ramgoolam Chowk side was defunct on October 3, the day the tragedy struck.

A gatekeeper near the old Gandhi statute said some officials of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) temporarily connected the high-mast lamp to a nearby transformer a day after the catastrophe.

Just outside the Gandhi Maidan gate near the Ramgoolam Chowk, there is an old telephone junction box in a dilapidated condition. A few wires jut out of it.

The shopkeepers near the gate said a cable TV wire was dangling close to a defunct landline connection conductor on top of the junction box. “These two wires confused people in the dark,” said Sonu Kumar, who sells fruits near the Maidan gate, where the stampede occurred.

A two-member team, comprising principal home secretary Amir Subhani and additional director-general of police (headquarters) Gupteshwar Pandey, is conducting an inquiry to find out the cause of the tragedy. But darkness at the exit gate and the absence of any system to control the crowd compounded the trouble of the revellers on the day of Dussehra.

“Had there been proper arrangements like public address system, volunteers, adequate police deployment, high-mast lamps and awareness posters and banners, this tragedy could have been averted,” said a person who managed to escape from the Maidan unhurt on the day of Dussehra.