NEW DELHI Officials announced on Friday that 36 bodies had been discovered inside a well at a Hindu temple in central India where dozens of festival-goers had fallen into the dark water when its roof collapsed.
The head of the temple trust and the secretary of the temple trust have been charged with culpable homicide by the Indore police.
As of Friday, 36 people had died in the catastrophe, which began when a stepwell at the Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, fell during Ram Navami celebrations. Twenty women, twelve men, and four kids are among the deceased.
According to officials, 18 additional patients are being treated at hospitals throughout the city. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan assured irate citizens that a magisterial investigation has been ordered.
The head of the temple trust, Sewaram Galani, and the trust secretary, AK Sabnani, who are both still at large, have both been charged with culpable homicide by the Indore police.
The survivors described how the stepwell’s top was built without any concrete reinforcements and how Thursday’s excessive crowding at the temple caused it to collapse.
The havan and prayers for Ram Navami are often held right outside the temple, according to Laxminarayan Sharma, chief priest at the temple. Nevertheless, this year there was ongoing construction, so they were held inside. Without any concrete and simply made of stone slabs and iron rods, the stepwell’s roof collapsed, according to Sharma, who was retrieved from the well.
At least 50 people were present at the temple for the Ram Navami prayers on Thursday at around 11.30am when the stone slabs and iron bars enclosing the 20-foot-deep pool of water and muck collapsed.
Senior officials reported that although 15 people were immediately rescued out using ropes, the majority of those who fell died from suffocation or impact injuries.
Rajesh Yadav, who went to the temple by himself for the prayers and later had to be hauled out with other casualties, claimed that the rescue effort didn’t start for 30 minutes after the building collapsed. He claimed that the locals were the ones who came to their aid.
As a video showed a woman being dragged out by a guy through a handmade ladder but sliding off of it went viral on social media, doubts were raised about the effectiveness of the rescue efforts.
“Several of the victims, including the woman, were moving around even after they had fallen in. The improvised rope broke as she was being dragged out, causing her to fall. ‘I believe she passed away right there,’ Yadav said.
Lalit Sethia, a survivor, recalled, “I was on edge with my friend Suresh Gulani. We clung to the iron supports as the roof collapsed. Suresh emerged and made an effort to save others.
No one was reported missing, according to the officials, who added that mud and debris dredging efforts are still ongoing. Late on Thursday night, rescue workers from the state police and state disaster relief force joined those from the Indian Army and NDRF, according to the officials.
According to a police official working on the rescue efforts, the administration did not have information as of late on Thursday as to how many individuals were still trapped.
According to Indore police commissioner Makrand Deouskar, the rescuers were also lacking information regarding the well’s depth.
“We initially believed the water pool to be 9 feet deep, but later discovered it to be at least 20 feet deep. To find bodies, divers had to be used, according to Deouskar.
Also, he refuted claims that the police response was slow. “The area was reached by police, the district administration, the SDRF, and the fire brigade in less than 20 minutes from the city centre. The social media sensational video was captured as the locals were rescuing the victims, he claimed.
Deputy Inspector Mahesh Chandra Jain of the State Disaster Emergency and Relief Force stated, “We have retrieved at least 23 bodies buried under the wreckage of the ceiling of the stepwell. Seventy army personnel participated in the rescue. No one else is missing, but workers from the NDRF and SDRF are removing debris to finish the rescue effort.
The stepwell was covered, according to temple trustees, after a series of suicides at the location in 1984, which was followed by the municipal corporation.
Several people perished here in the early 1980s, and individuals from the temple used to be witnesses in these cases,” said Laxmikant Patel, deputy secretary of the temple trust who lost his wife and daughter-in-law in the disaster on Thursday. The municipal corporation closed the stepwell without providing any support for the pillars after we submitted a complaint.
The Indore Municipal Corporation’s building officer and building engineer have also been suspended, according to district collector Ilayaraj T, for failing to keep an eye on the temple’s unauthorised construction.
We are unable to instantly verify these assertions because the stepwell’s covering is 30 years old, but an investigation is ongoing to ascertain the truth, he said. The temple was undergoing renovations when the incident occurred.
While CM Chouhan was there on Friday, irate villagers yelled insults at him.
The chief minister told the populace that “the administration has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the disaster and police have registered a case.” “We will determine responsibility after the investigation, and action will be taken against the guilty,” he stated.
The CM said that he has ordered the authorities to determine whether any wells and stepwells in the state have been covered in a hazardous manner or have had work done on them.
Along with seeing the injured, he made a hospital visit and offered a $5 lakh settlement for the families of the deceased. The Prime Minister’s Relief Fund would also provide a separate 2 lakh compensation to the deceased person’s family, according to officials.
