Patna High Court on Tuesday asked the state government when the Dussehra stampede probe report would be submitted.

The court’s order came in the light of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the high court on October 10 in connection with the Dussehra stampede at Gandhi Maidan on October 3 in which 33 people lost their lives and several others were injured.

One Vinayak Vijeta had filed the PIL seeking judicial inquiry into the incident by a sitting high court judge.

The high court also asked the state government about the time by which it would submit the report of the investigation into the Chhath stampede in 2012.

Vijeta’s petition on the Dussehra stampede stated that the two-member probe committee constituted by the state government lacked credibility and so a fair probe was not expected from it.

The state government had set up the committee comprising principal secretary (home) Amir Subhani and additional director-general of police Gupteshwar Pandey after the tragedy to investigate the circumstances that led to the Gandhi Maidan stampede. The petition filed by Vijeta challenged the probity of the members of the team. The petitioner’s counsel, Sunil Kumar, on Tuesday said: “Since both the officers are perceived to be close to the Bihar government, an impartial probe cannot be expected from them.”

Kumar said Subhani had been the state home secretary for the past five years, while Pandey was reinstated in the service after he had opted for voluntary retirement scheme in 2009 allegedly to fulfil his wish of contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

More than a week before the high court asked the state government when the stampede probe report would be submitted, chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had claimed on October 13 that the government had already received it.

“The 300-page report is being analysed and legal action will follow later,” Manjhi had told reporters on the sidelines of his janata durbar. The chief minister also claimed that the state government had initiated action against the officials found prima facie guilty in the case.

Contrary to Manjhi’s statement, principal home secretary Subhani, who is heading the two-member probe team, had said the investigation was still going on.

Former Patna district magistrate Manish Kumar Verma and former senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj deposed before the members of the inquiry team and recorded their statements the day the chief minister had claimed that the government had received the inquiry report.