Ranchi, Aug. 10: Ten persons were killed and over 50 injured in Deoghar before dawn today when a stampede broke out on a 10km-long queue of pilgrims lined up for darshan of Lord Baidyanath, many jumping queue and trampling over sleeping devotees as soon as an administrative barricade was lifted.
Being the second auspicious Monday of Shravan month, around two lakh devotees were waiting to offer prayers and gangajal at the temple, one of the 12 jyotirlingas or the most sacred abodes of Lord Shiva.
Deoghar district administration had put up barricades at strategic locations to regulate the crowd. On one such road, where the queue had 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 couldn't regulate crowds.
Bedlam broke loose.
This morning, 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.
By evening, heads of four top bureaucrats had rolled.
The state government suspended Deoghar DC and SP, Amit Kumar and P. Murugan, with immediate effect on charges of dereliction of duty. Deoghar civil surgeon Diwakar Kamat and regional deputy director of health services Shiv Shankar Singh were also suspended.
Pandey also told the media about 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.
A priest at Baidyanathdham, who hitched a ride to the mishap site on his son's bike at 5.45am, told The Telegraph, that the 80-feet-wide road had a slope but boulders were piled up on the sides and several tired pilgrims were sleeping on the roadside.
"When the barricade was lifted, some people tried to overtake others, leading to commotion. Police used their hands to regulate the crowd but there were no lathis, I was told," priest Manoj Naraune said. He explained that as the point of the road where the stampede took place was sloping, people running could have easily stumbled and fallen.
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 have strongly denied it, saying the police did not carry batons.
So far, among the 10 deceased, including a woman, five have been identified. All visitors from other states, they are Pradyumna Gupta (19), 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 (age unknown) of Kalindi in Odisha.
The bodies have been kept at Deoghar Sadar Hospital. Many of the injured were admitted to Ma Lalita Super Specialty Hospital. Four critically injured persons were rushed to RIMS in choppers.
The state government dedicated two helplines numbers 06432-232299 and 06432-240577 for callers requesting information.
Now, 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.
Starting on August 1 this year, Shravan will extend till August 29.
"Special arrangements have been made till August 29. The new DC and SP have assumed their charge. Also, two companies of Rapid Action Force and three additional companies of CRPF have been deployed in Deoghar. Two CRPF companies were already available in Deoghar," Pandey told the media in the evening.
Jharkhand High Court also took up suo motu cognisance of the tragedy and directed Deoghar chapter of Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority to set up legal aid camps and submit am interim action-taken report in 48 hours.
Chief minister Das has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 for each of the injured. But, leader of Opposition Hemant, who alleged that the tragedy exposed the Raghubar Das government's inability to handle such mega events, demanded Rs 5 lakh as compensation for the kin of the deceased.
Prime Minister Modi also expressed grief on Twitter in the morning. Congress president Sonia Gandhi also conveyed her condolences.
The last stampede in Deoghar took place in 2007, when five women were killed and scores injured.
