Near-stampede scenario over weekend; security beefed up
MUMBAI: With the arrival of the weekend, a huge rush of devotees at Lalbaugcha Raja resulted in a near stampede-like situation on Saturday night. However, the Kala Chowki police denied such a situation was reported.
Moreover, because of the surge in number of devotees coming for darshan over the weekend, the Mumbai police increased its personnel at the venue on Sunday.
According to an HT correspondent who was at the spot at 11:30pm on Saturday, there was a near-stampede situation with an unexpected rush of devotees and insufficient crowd management facilities.
Despite the best efforts of two policemen, the huge crowd turned chaotic and devotees even broke some bamboo dividers. The correspondent also has a video capturing the chaos.
The correspondent called the police control room at 11:44pm to inform that a few people and two policemen had suffered minor injuries. A police team arrived half an hour later to manage the crowd.
However, the Mumbai police denied such a situation, but confirmed that the weekend led to a surge in number of devotees, leading to overcrowding.
Ravindra Shisve, additional commissioner of police (ACP), Central Region said, “Being a weekend and the first Saturday of the festival, a huge crowd came for darshan, which was expected. Seeing the weekend crowd, we had increased the police security. Around 1,000 personnel are stationed in the Lalbuag area to manage the crowd.”
“We had ensured that bamboo dividers are installed so that devotees can queue up for darshan. This will make sure no question of jostling or stampede-like situation arises,” he added.