48 hours after temple tragedy, two event organisers arrested

New Delhi, January 30

Two organisers of the religious function that was held at Kalkaji Temple here where a stage collapsed leaving a woman dead and 17 injured were arrested on Tuesday, the police said.

The arrested persons have been identified as Tughlakabad resident Satish Kumar (38) and Anuj Mittal (43) from Kalkaji, they said.

The incident took place on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday during a ‘jagran’ (religious function) when an elevated wooden platform at the venue collapsed, killing 49-year-old Tina and injuring 17 others.

A case under IPC Sections 337 (causing hurt by the act that endangers life or safety of others), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) had been registered at the Kalkaji police station.

More than 1,600 people had attended the event and singer B Praak also performed at the programme. According to sources, he had left the venue before the incident happened.

According to police, an application for organising the event was given to the temple by Satish Kumar on behalf of ‘Sri Kalkaji Sajja Sevadar Mitr Mandal’.

On Monday, the Delhi Police had questioned at least six people, including members of the mandal, and served notices to others to join the probe.

Investigations so far indicated that the organisers had not given any intimation to the local police or administration about an event of such a scale happening inside the temple premises, the official said, adding that both suspects were interrogated.