West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on 18 October 2026 that the state will form a special investigation team to examine the stampede at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata, in which 19 people died. The stampede happened on the evening of 17 October, Maha Saptami, in heavy rain, and about 25 people were injured. Most of the dead were women and children, and 18 of the 19 were residents of West Bengal. Adhikari said the state would ask the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to allow a sitting judge to conduct the inquiry, and a separate high-level committee will review crowd management, exit routes and structural safety at prominent puja venues across the state.
The argument that the response is adequate rests on the measures announced. A probe headed by a sitting High Court judge gives the inquiry more independence than one run by the police alone, and the SIT is expected to include officers from the Special Task Force, the Criminal Investigation Department and other departments. The government has said it will look at the reasons for the stampede and any lapses. Adhikari met the injured with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, said he was keeping a close watch on the matter and was in direct contact with the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, the director general of police and the Kolkata police commissioner. Each bereaved family was assigned a team of civil administrators, police personnel and the local MLA until the cremation. The state also announced Rs 25 lakh in aid and government jobs for families, according to the government’s statement.
The counter-argument is that the facts are still unclear and the steps are still proposals. The state must first approach the High Court, and no judge has been named, so the inquiry has not yet begun. Accounts of the police action differ: one report says police detained 12 people, including organisers, while another says seven were arrested, including members of the organising committee. Reports point to several possible causes: an announcement over a loudspeaker that allegedly triggered a rush, too few entry and exit points, one badly managed entrance and rain, while early reports of a structural collapse were not confirmed. Adhikari urged parties not to politicise the tragedy and said that similar accidents had happened under previous governments. He also said that the practice of issuing VIP cards for money has stopped, but lane closures for VIP movement have not been fully eliminated and should end, with the rest of the work to be completed by next year. The Calcutta High Court has also sought an inquiry into the deaths and injuries.
The incident matters for the whole country because large crowds at festivals are a recurring risk. The Durga Puja is the biggest festival in Bengal, and pandals in Kolkata draw very large numbers of visitors. Standard questions about entrances and exits, loudspeaker announcements, barricades and the number of marshals have to be answered for every pandal, not only for Chorbagan. The review of venues across the state will show whether the lessons are applied before next year’s festival.
The inquiry is promised and the committee is announced, but 19 families are waiting for answers. The test will be whether the judge’s findings are made public and whether they change the way pujas are organised.