The central government has sent a Special Protection Group (SPG) team to conduct a probe into the collapse of the makeshift tent at the Midnapore college ground in West Midnapore when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a Kishan Kalyan rally on Monday.
Around 100 people were injured and many of them were admitted to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital (MMCH). The Prime Minister, after the rally, went to visit the injured, breaking security protocol. Among the injured, the condition of four people is critical and they have been shifted to city hospitals.
Meanwhile, West Midnapore police have registered a case under non-bailable provisions against the decorator and organiser of the rally and initiated an investigation into the accident. Hours after the rally, the district police had sealed the Midnapore college ground last night. The district police officials were forced to seal the ground soon after a part of another tent collapsed.
Though no one was injured, the police did not take any risk. This morning, state police officials, police superintendent of West Midnapore Alok Rajoria, ADG and IGP of state police’s intelligence branch (IB), Siddh Nath Gupta, forensic experts and a three-member team from the Prime Minister’s SPG headed by a secretary visited the site.
According to sources, the district police administration held a meeting with two senior officials of the Union home ministry ~ S K Sinha and Arti Bhatnagar ~ at Circuit House in Midnapore this afternoon. The meeting continued for several hours but the district police did not reveal anything about the meeting.
The move to send a SPG team comes after the Centre sought a report from the state government on the incident. Nabanna sources revealed that since it was the Prime Minister’s programme, the National Security Guard (NSG) was in charge of the venue for seven days before the programme.
A senior official at Nabanna said: “As NSG was looking after the security aspect, the state government hardly had anything to do.” The team would also find out if the advance security liaison was implemented when the Prime Minister was present at the rally organised by the state unit of BJP.
The SPG is mandated to provide proximate security to the Prime Minister of India, former Prime Ministers and members of their immediate families. It was formed in 1988. After examining the mishap site and collecting samples from the spot, forensic experts indicated that overcrowding and heavy rainfall were not the only reasons behind the accident.
“During preliminary investigation, we have found negligence in the manufacture of material used in the temporary structures,” a forensic expert said. “Those tents were not made properly and the iron pipes used to erect the structure were of poor quality, which might have led to the accident,” the expert said.
A senior police officer said that strict action will be taken against the decorator and organisers if any negligence in setting up the makeshift tents is proved during investigation. According to reports, owner of Kolkata-based decorating firm, J N Decorators, which set up the pandal at the rally has been asked to appear with all business-related documents and certificates before West Midnapore district police for questioning.
The BJP leaders who organised the rally, however, blamed the local police administration for the mishap. Party’s state president Dilip Ghosh said: “Several people climbed on the iron structures of the tent to get a glimpse of Narendra Modi and our volunteers requested police to control the mob and to prevent them from climbing up the tent.”
“Policemen on duty at the rally refused to help our volunteers in controlling the supporters. If police had performed their duty at that time, such a mishap might have been averted,” Mr Ghosh added.