Ranchi, Aug. 10: Ten persons died and over 50 injured in Deoghar before dawn today when a stampede broke out on a 10km queue of pilgrims waiting for a darshan of Baidyanathdham, many jumping the queue as soon as an administrative barricade lifted, and trampling over sleeping devotees.
Being the second auspicious Monday of the holy Shravan month, around two lakh devotees were waiting to offer prayers and water from the Ganga at the temple, one of the 12 jyotirlingas or most sacred abodes of Lord Shiva.
The Deoghar district administration had put up barricades at strategic locations to regulate the Monday crowd.
On one such road, where the queue of people stretched for over 10km, till Bela Bagan locality, crowds surged when a barricade was lifted around 4.30am. As people pushed and shoved to get ahead on the road without streetlights between 4.30am and 5am, police tried to regulate the crowds but couldn't.
"The 80-feet wide road had a slope and boulders were piled up on the sides. I was told several tired pilgrims were sleeping by the roadside, and when the barricades were lifted, some people tried to overtake others who had queued up, leading to the commotion. Police used their hands to regulate the crowd but there were no lathis, I was told," Manoj Naraune, priest at Baidyanathdham, who hitched a ride to the mishap site on his son's bike at 5.45am today, told The Telegraph.
The priest explained that as the point of the road where the stampede took place was sloping, people running could have easily stumbled and fallen, worsening the situation.
Some, including leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Hemant Soren, alleged that when pilgrims jumped queue, police lathicharged the crowd and escalated the stampede, causing people to run amok over devotees sleeping on Deoghar-Jasidih road. Others denied it, saying the police did not carry batons.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh called up chief minister Raghubar Das this morning to inquire how the stampede took place.
Around 9.30am, Das called a news meet at his Kanke Road residence, announcing a high-level inquiry panel to be chaired by home secretary N.N. Pandey. "If found guilty, no one will be spared," Das told The Telegraph when asked whether a minor lathicharge to control the crowd snowballed into the stampede.
Pandey flew to Deoghar before noon itself along with additional director general of police S.N. Pradhan, and rural works department secretary M.R. Meena.
By evening, Pandey spoke candidly on lapses in official machinery. "Proper barricading, lighting, public announcement system and modalities to regulate the crowd were not in place in Bela Bagan area. The site had slopes and enough space for people to break queues," he said.
The state government suspended Deoghar DC and SP, Amit Kumar and P. Murugan, with immediate effect on charges of dereliction of duty.
Jharkhand Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (JVVNL) MD Rahul Purwar was made Deoghar DC and Dumka SP Vipul Shukla transferred to Deoghar to take charge. Dumka range DIG Deo Bihari Sharma will be district SP (additional charge) for now.
Deoghar civil surgeon Diwakar Kamat and regional deputy director of health services Shiv Shankar Singh too were suspended. The inquiry team led by Pandey observed these officials were missing from their workplace and Deoghar Sadar Hospital was in a "pitiable" state. So far, five of the 10 dead have been identified. They include Praduman Gupta, Forbesganj in Bihar; and Ram Pravesh Kesri (37) of Chandauli, Ramjee (70) of Lakhimpur and Kalika Yadav (33) of Bahraich, all in Uttar Pradesh; and Sunil Sharma of Kalindi in Odisha.
The bodies have been kept at Deoghar Sadar Hospital. The state dedicated two helplines numbers 06432-232299 and 06432-240577 for callers requesting information.
