One woman died and 17 people were injured after a wooden stage for seating devotees at a jagran collapsed at Delhi’s Kalkaji Temple, police said on Sunday. The event, which was organised without permission on Friday night, was attended by over 1,600 people, they added.
Videos of the jagran, an overnight devotional programme, showed a huge crowd of people inside the tightly-packed venue. Devotees had also climbed on the main stage where popular Punjabi musician B Praak was singing bhajans.
Police said the wooden platform, which was erected to seat the families of the event’s organisers and other VIPs, had started leaning under excessive weight. At around midnight, the structure snapped and fell on the devotees sitting under it.
A stampede-like chaos after the collapse as people screamed and ran out of the venue.
While no permission was granted for the event, police said sufficient personnel were deployed to maintain law and order.
The injured were rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre, Safdarjung Hospital and MAX Hospital in Saket. Among them, a 45-year-old woman, who has not been identified, was declared dead.
The condition of all other injured is reported to be stable with a few of them sustaining fractures, police said.
A case has been registered against the event’s organisers. The Mata Jagran at Mahant Parishar has been organised at the Kalkaji Mandir for the last 26 years.
