– According to family members, Bidhan and Gayatri were killed in the stampede early Wednesday morning, while Amiya died from suffocation after being trapped in the crowd, soon after the tragic incident
GBT News: The number of people who had died in the stampede at the Mahakumbh in Allahabad reached five after three more pilgrims from the state were reported dead on Friday.
On Thursday, the state government confirmed the deaths of two elderly women pilgrims — Basanti Poddar, 63, from Calcutta’s Golf Green and Urmila Bhuniya, 78, from West Midnapore’s Salboni.
Within 24 hours, the administration received news of three additional deaths in the tragic crowd rush near the Sangam riverfront of Allahabad. The three are Bidhan Ruidas, 42, from West Burdwan’s Jamuria, Gayatri Dey, 60, from Birbhum’s Rampurhat, and Amiya Saha, 33, from Malda’s Kaliachak.
According to family members, Bidhan and Gayatri were killed in the stampede early Wednesday morning, while Amiya died from suffocation after being trapped in the crowd, soon after the tragic incident.
As the bodies of Salboni’s Urmila and Jamuria’s Bidhan were sent without post-mortem reports or death certificates, family members cried about alleged mismanagement by the Yogi Adityanath government in UP. They accused the Uttar Pradesh administration of attempting to suppress the number of deaths in the stampede.
Bidhan, a toto (e-rickshaw) driver from Jamuria in West Burdwan, had gone to the Mahakumbh Mela via Varanasi with his brother-in-law and a friend on Monday. His family members had last spoken to him on Tuesday night.
Bidhan’s brother-in-law, Bishnu Ruidas, said they were heading towards the river confluence for the holy dip when they got separated.
“I later found him in the hospital morgue in Prayagraj. We weren’t assisted by the UP government. We were helplessly roaming from one hospital to another to find Bidhan,” said Bishnu.
He said the hospital authorities handed him Bidhan’s body but without a death certificate or post-mortem report.
“How can they do this? Without a death certificate from the hospital in Prayagraj or a post-mortem report, how can we prove that Bidhan died in the Kumbh stampede and claim compensation?” Bishnu asked.
Family members of Urmila raised similar concerns about the Yogi government’s lackadaisical approach to delivering their loved one’s body.
The district administrations conducted post-mortems of Bidhan and Urmila at their respective district hospitals, following instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee. They also made necessary arrangements for the last rites.
“Following our chief minister’s instructions, we have been in touch with the families since they were informed about the tragedy. Today, we conducted the post-mortem of Urmila Bhuniya, whose body arrived from Uttar Pradesh on Thursday evening, in the presence of senior officials and minister Manas Bhuniya,” said Khursheed Ali Qadri, West Midnapore district magistrate.
Qadri added that the administration would inquire about the legal procedures for issuing the death certificate.
Pratap Dey, the son of Gayatri, who went missing from the Mahakumbh on Wednesday morning, said he received a list of deceased persons, where his mother’s name and photograph appeared at serial number 18.
“We couldn’t contact my mother since Wednesday morning. Finally, we learned that she was among those killed in the stampede. We informed our local SDO, who assured us of assistance to get my mother’s mortal remains,” he said.
A primary school teacher, Amiya, 33, from Char Babupur village in Birnagar 2 panchayat in Kaliachak 3 block, went to take a holy dip at the Mahakumbh and died on Wednesday morning.
Amiya suffered from breathlessness after being caught in the massive crowd and fell ill. His travel companions took him to a local hospital, where he later died.
Trinamool leaders reached out to the bereaved families on Friday, proming that the Mamata Banerjee government would support them.
“It’s clear that the Yogi government is trying to suppress the incident, avoid giving compensation to the victims’s relatives and conceal the true number of casualties. How can they send the victims’ bodies without a death certificate or autopsy report, which is mandatory?” said Narendranath Chakraborty, local MLA and Trinamool’s West Burdwan district president, who met Bidhan’s family.
BJP Birbhum president Dhruba Saha, who met the bereaved families in Rampurhat, said: “We will be with the families who lost their loved ones in the Kumbh. The BJP will help them contact the UP government for any assistance.”
Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty, Abhijeet Chatterjee and Soumya Dey Sarkar in Malda
