Three people died in a stampede-like situation in Puri’s Shardhali area on Sunday morning. The deceased include two women and one man. The deceased have been identified as Basanti Sahu, Premkant Mohanty and Parvati Das. At the same time, more than 100 people have been injured. According to reports, since it was Sunday, a huge crowd of devotees gathered at around 4 AM today to have darshan of the fourth idols on the three chariots standing in front of the Sri Gundicha Temple.
Due to the huge crowd, there was a stampede among the devotees and a stampede like situation occurred near the chariot. According to information received from reliable sources, the responsibility of controlling the crowd was with senior IPS officers Saumendra Priyadarshi and Pinak Mishra. However, they went to rest in their guest room after 1 pm. Due to this, common devotees had to pay the price of the careless attitude of the police controlling the huge crowd by losing their lives.
Some devotees have written that the traffic police were busy controlling the traffic but the crowd that had gathered in front of the Gundicha temple was left at the mercy of Jagannath. The administration knew in advance that most of the devotees were not able to see Mahaprabhu on the day of Rath Yatra. In such a situation, devotees are eager to see Mahaprabhu seated on the chariot in front of the Gundicha temple. Despite this, the administration did not make the necessary arrangements to control the crowd. It has been reported that more than a hundred devotees were injured in this stampede.
It is noteworthy that on the second day of Saturday, the devotees pulled all the three chariots and brought them to Shardhabali. In this way, the darshan of the Chaturtha Vigraha seated on the three chariots standing in front of the Gundicha temple continued throughout the night. As per the scheduled ritual, the Chaturdha idols will be taken to the Gundicha Temple at 4 p.m. today.