E-Paper
Death count in Indore temple tragedy hits 36
The Indore police have registered a case of culpable homicide against the chairman of the temple trust and the secretary of the temple trust.
Rescuers on Friday pulled out 23 more bodies from a stepwell that collapsed at Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore during Ram Navami celebrations a day earlier, taking the toll in the tragedy to 36. The deceased include 20 women, 12 men, and four children.
Read here: Indore temple well collapse victim shares ordeal: 'Couldn't breathe' | Watch
Eighteen other people are being treated at hospitals across the city, officials said, with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan assuring angry locals that a magisterial probe has been ordered.
The Indore police have also registered a case of culpable homicide against the chairman of the temple trust, Sewaram Galani, and the secretary of the trust, AK Sabnani, both of whom are still at large.
Recounting the horror, the survivors said that the top of the stepwell was constructed without any concrete reinforcements, and that the unchecked crowding at the temple on Thursday led to it collapsing.
Laxminarayan Sharma, head priest at the temple, said that the havan and prayers on Ram Navami are usually organised just outside the temple. “But this year, there was construction ongoing, so they took place inside. The roof of the stepwell was constructed without any concrete, and only had stone slabs and iron rods, which collapsed,” said Sharma, who was rescued from the well.
The stone slabs and iron bars covering the 20-feet-deep pool of water and mud collapsed at around 11.30am on Thursday when at least 50 people were at the temple for the Ram Navami prayers.
Fifteen people were pulled out in the immediate aftermath using ropes, but most others that fell died due to suffocation or impact injuries, senior officials said.
Rajesh Yadav, who had gone to the temple alone for the prayers and was later pulled out among other victims, said the rescue operation began only after half an hour of the collapse. It was the locals who rushed to help, he said.
“We faced breathing issues inside because of there was a foul odour from some kind of gas inside the well which had been shut for years,” Yadav said.
Questions were raised over the efficacy of the rescue operations after a video of a woman being pulled out by a man through a makeshift ladder but falling off it was circulated on social media.
“There were a few people that were showing signs of motion even after falling in, including the woman. She was being pulled out, but the makeshift rope broke and she fell. I think she died on the spot,” Yadav said.
A survivor, Lalit Sethia, said, “I was standing on edge with my friend Suresh Gulani. The roof caved in and we stuck on to iron pillars. Suresh came out and tried to rescue others. He didn’t have any safety guards as the rescue operation started a bit late and he slipped into the step well. He died. I survived.”
The officials said that operations to dredge out mud and debris are still going on, but no people were left unaccounted. Personnel from the Indian Army and NDRF joined the state police and state disaster relief force in rescue efforts late on Thursday night, the officials said.
Till late on Thursday the administration did not have a confirmation on the number of people still trapped, an officer involved with the rescue operations said.
“By Thursday evening, we had rescued 19 people and recovered 13 bodies. It was only by late on Thursday night that we had a complete list of the missing people. There was complete darkness, and it was only by the evening when the NDRF and the Indian Army reached on Thursday that the operation picked up pace when the collapsed stone slabs that had added to the debris in the water,” the officer said.
The rescuers also lacked information on the depth of the well, Indore police commissioner Makrand Deouskar said.
“We had first thought that the pool of water was 9 feet, but later found that it was at least 20 feet. Divers had to be employed to find bodies,” Deouskar said.
He also denied the allegations that there was delay in police response. “The area is 20 minutes away from the centre of the city, and police, district administration, SDRF and fire brigade reached within 20 minutes. The video that is going viral on social media was shot when the locals were rescuing victims,” he said.
Read here: 13 dead as roof of stepwell at Indore temple collapses
Mahesh Chandra Jain, deputy inspector of the State Disaster Emergency and Relief Force said, “Seventy army soldiers joined in the rescue and we have recovered at least 23 bodies buried under the debris of the roof of the stepwell. There is nobody else that is missing, but teams of the NDRF and SDRF are clearing the debris to complete the rescue operation.”
Temple trustees said that the stepwell was covered after a spate in suicides at the spot, following which the municipal corporation in 1984.
Laxmikant Patel, deputy secretary of the temple trust who lost his wife and daughter-in-law in the Thursday accident said, “In early 1980’s, many people died here, and people from the temple used to be witnesses in these cases. We filed a complaint after which the municipal corporation closed the stepwell without any support for the pillars.”
Ilayaraj T, district collector Indore, said the building officer and building engineer of the Indore Municipal Corporation have also been suspended for failing to keep a check on unregulated construction at the temple.
“This (covering of the stepwell) is a 30-year-old matter so we cannot verify these claims immediately but a probe is on to determine the truth,” he said. Renovation was going on at the temple at the time of the accident.
Meanwhile, angry locals raised slogans against CM Chouhan who visited the spot on Friday.
“The administration has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the accident and police have registered a case,” the chief minister assured the people. “After the investigation, we will fix the responsibility and action will be taken against the guilty,” he said.
The CM said that he has instructed the officials to find out if any wells and stepwells across the state have been covered in a dangerous manner and if any constructions have been made on them.
He also visited a hospital to meet the injured and announced ₹5 lakh compensation to the families of the dead. A separate ₹2 lakh compensation from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund will also be given to the kin of the deceased, officials said.
