Indore temple tragedy 2023: Court acquits two Trust officials over lack of evidence

The Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple was built illegally over an old stepwell, and its collapse on 30 March 2023 led to the death of 36 people, including 21 women and two children.

The Indore district and sessions court on Thursday acquitted two people associated with the Trust of an illegally constructed temple over lack of evidence, two years after 36 devotees died when the stepwell of the structure collapsed in March 2023.

A police officer takes pictures during rescue operations after the roof of a stepwell in a temple complex collapsed in Indore on 30 March 2023. (Reuters)

Sewaram Galani, president of Shri Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple Trust which manages the temple, and secretary Murli Kumar Sabnani were acquitted after the court found lapses on the part of the police to prove their involvement in the incident.

“Judge Jitendra Singh Kushwaha said the police should have made the municipal corporation officials accused, but it was not done. At the same time, the police could not prove the charges of ‘culpable homicide, not amounting to murder’ levelled against both the accused,” defence lawyer Raghavendra Singh Bais told reporters.

Galani and Sabnani were cleared of the charges under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.

“The court said the police did not investigate the case properly and failed to fix the accountability of municipal corporation officials. The negligence of the people of the Trust could not be proven because they were not aware that there was a stepwell beneath the temple. As many as 33 people testified in the case,” Bais said.

Another factor that led to the acquittal was that the ‘havan’ (a fire ritual) was organised by the locals on Ram Navami and it had nothing to do with the Trust, the lawyer said.

Around 54 people attended the ‘havan’ on 30 March 2023, and when they stood up for the ‘aarti’, the roof of the stepwell, which was illegally constructed by putting stone slabs and iron pillars without any support, caved in. Eighteen people were rescued, while 36 bodies, including 21 women and two children, were recovered after a 25-hour-long rescue operation.

In March 2024, a magisterial inquiry report produced before the court held the zonal officer of Indore Municipal Corporation, water engineering department officers, the building officer and the building inspector responsible, along with the Trust’s president and secretary.

The magisterial report had said that the president and secretary of temple trust didn’t put any board or inform the people about the stepwell. The zonal officer and water engineering department officers were held responsible for failing to identify the stepwell. Despite receiving complaints regarding the illegal construction of the temple, the municipal corporation building officer and inspector didn’t take any action or give any satisfactory response for not acting in the matter, the report stated.

However, the police didn’t add names of any municipal officials as accused despite the report.

On April 3, 2023, the local administration transferred the idols from the temple to another place of worship. The illegally constructed temple was demolished over safety concerns, and the stepwell was permanently sealed.