NEW DELHI: They took the 42-step stairway to get onboard the train that would lead them to Maha Kumbh and spiritual salvation, but instead, the deceased of the kin recall how they witnessed hell in a matter of minutes, as thousands lost their footing and fell, and dragged others down with them to death at Platform 13-14 of the New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday.
Reeling in excruciating grief at the loss of his seven-year-old daughter Riya, who suffered a fatal head injury when an iron rod pierced her skull during the stampede, Opil Singh, said, “I was heading to the platform, when I saw a massive crowd. My wife with my other child had gone up the stairway, but my daughter and I got stuck in the middle. People started falling on us. Amid this, an iron rod pierced through my daughter’s head. I lifted my daughter in my arms and rushed to the hospital in an auto rickshaw, but by the time we reached, it was too late. The doctors declared her dead.” A resident of Sagarpur, south west Delhi, Singh said no compensation can bring his daughter back to him.
Angry at lapses in crowd management that cost him his daughter’s life, Singh lashed out at the administration on how the platforms had got dangerously overcrowded and those climbing up were blocked by those trying to descend, creating a human bottleneck.
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On how the chaos broke out, Sanjay, brother of deceased Pinky Devi, said, “We were a group of 12 people who had arrived at the platform around 8 pm. We had come down from Platform 14 and were on the stairs when the stampede happened. My wife, children, including my 11-year-old daughter, were with me. We all got caught in the crowd, and my daughter got trampled. I managed to pull her out, but her clothes were torn.”
Outside LNJP hospital, where the victims were rushed to, stood Manoj Shah. “My daughter would have turned 12 next month,” said Shah softly, while standing near the main gate of LNJP hospital as he clutched the beam for support. His 11-year-old daughter, Suruchi, died along with grandparents, Vikas Shah and Krishna Shah, in the stampede.
Shah (35), a resident of Tikri area, told TOI that they were excited to attend Maha Kumbh. His parents, who lived in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, had arrived in Delhi by train on Saturday. “My daughter, father and mother are no more. We were all together just hours ago,” said Shah as his eyes welled up with tears.
“I received a phone call from my brother, informing me that my parents and daughter died on the spot. I was in shock and rushed to LNJP hospital with my wife and friends,” said Shah, a driver, adding in the same breath, “It’s the poor management that destroyed my family.”
A few metres away from Shah stood 55-year-old Kavita Sehgal grieving for her relative, Sangeeta Malik (34), a nurse, who was on a trip to Maha Kumbh with her friends. “I received a phone call from Sangeeta’s number, and when I answered, I heard someone else’s voice telling me about the incident,” said Sehgal.
Calling it a twist of fate, Sehgal said, Sangeeta, who lived with her husband in Mundhal Khurd, had made a sudden plan to go to Prayagraj with her friends. “She came to my house in Rohini and told me she was going to Maha Kumbh. I even packed food for her,” said Sehgal.
“There were bodies all over the place,” said Pappu, a resident of southwest Delhi’s Kapashera, who lost his mother-in-law Poonam in the stampede. “I managed to pull her out and rush her to the hospital, but she died. She had come from Bihar to visit me and our daughter, Pammy.” Poonam was supposed to board the Magadh Express with a friend, who is also missing after the incident, said Pappu, showing the picture he took of her just minutes before the horrific stampede holding her granddaughter.
Sheela Devi, native of Bihar and resident of Prem Nagar, was travelling to Maha Kumbh with her relatives. “Six of them, including Sheela and her husband, Umesh Giri, arrived early at the railway station and became victims of the incident,” said Santosh, a relative. “We were informed that Sheela died, while her husband, who owns a printing press business, suffered multiple fractures.”
“They had booked tickets under Tatkal, but poor management has cost us her life,” said Meera, another relative.
Poonam Rohilla was among those who lost their lives in the stampede. Her two children broke down on the floor of LNJP hospital when they heard about their mother’s death. A resident of Dwarka, Poonam was travelling with friends when the incident occurred. “As soon as I received news about the stampede, I rushed to the railway station and then to the hospital, and that’s when I received the news about my mother,” one of her sons said.
Another deceased, Baby Kumari (19), youngest among seven siblings from an underprivileged household, supported her family by doing odd jobs and sending money to her mother in Bihar. “She lived with her father in the Bijwasan area. Baby was about to take admission in class XII,” her relative, Rajiv Kumar, said. For many, the search for missing family members is another cause of concern. Rajkumar Manjhi, who lost his daughter Puja Kumari and wife Shanti Devi, in the stampede, said he is searching for his son who went missing after the incident.
Late Saturday night, LNJP hospital saw ambulances arriving one after the other. One of the women who had come to admit her relative described the mayhem. “I saw a kid with no clothes on, being rushed to the hospital; he was struggling to breathe.”
