Seven devotees died and 60 were injured when a 65ft-tall stage erected for a religious event collapsed at Badaut in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
The incident occurred around 8am during an event organised for the “abhishek” of Lord Adinath, the first Tirthankar in Jainism, at the Shri Digambar Jain Degree College grounds at Gandhi Road in Badaut.
Eyewitnesses said the stage had been built parallel to the temple and the idol of Adinath was installed there. “Following the rituals, the devotees were offering laddoos to Adinath when the stagecollapsed. There were at least 100 devotees on the stage and its stairs, while many more were under the stage. There were policemen also” said an eyewitness.
Baghpat additional district magistrate Pankaj Verma said: “The Moksh Kaltanak Nirvan Mahotsav of Adinath was organised by Sri 1008 Adinath Bhaktambar Prachar. They had erected the temporary stage that collapsed and killed seven devotees.”
Manish Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate of Badaut, said: “We are probing the lapses in the organisation of the event and the guilty must be brought to book.”
The deceased and the injured are from Badaut. The sub-divisional magistrate said the injured had been admitted to Astha Hospital and Anand Tomar Hospital in Baghpat. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the authorities to ensure that the injured receive free treatment. Six policemen deployed at the venue have also suffered injuries.
A government official said: “We had expected about 10,000 devotees but about 40,000 came. Everybody wanted to reach the stage and offer laddoo to the god. We had deployed a dozen policemen there. We couldn’t spare more forces because they have been sent to Allahabad and Ayodhya to manage the crowds there.”
Panic gripped the area after the stage collapse, resulting in a stampede-like situation. Some eyewitnesses claimed that the injured could not get immediate medical assistance and had to be taken to hospitals in e-rickshaws as no ambulances were available.
According to those present at the event, the temporary stairs could not bear the weight of the huge crowd of devotees and gave way.
“Due to government and administrative negligence and carelessness, there was no monitoring of the crowd at the religious festival.... We pray to God that everyone is safe,” the Samajwadi Party media cell said on X.