Family members of the deceased in Samastipur district of Bihar after hearing about the death of three members.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When Kajal Kumari’s parents and young relative left their village in Bihar’s Samastipur district on a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh, she did not know she would never see them again. In the early hours of Sunday (February 16, 2025), she got the news that all three — her father Vijay Sah, 45; mother Krishna Devi, 40, and their 11-year-old relative Suruchi Kumari — died in a stampede at New Delhi railway station. She has not been able to stop crying since then.
The stampede was preceded by a swell in the crowd of passengers waiting to board trains for Prayagraj, where the Maha Kumbh is underway, on two platforms in the station. Of the 18 people who died, nine are from Bihar.
‘Complete failure’
“My father and mother, along with another relative, had gone to take a dip at the Maha Kumbh,” a teary Ms. Kumari told journalists at her village of Srichandpur Kothia. The three members of the family first went from Samastipur to Delhi, where Ms. Kumari’s brother stays, and then planned to go on to Prayagraj from there, by boarding a train at the New Delhi Railway station. “At around 1 a.m., I got the call from New Delhi that all three died in the stampede. It is a complete failure of the Railways. Had there been proper management at the railway station, this incident would not have taken place,” she added.
Apart from Suruchi Kumari, two other children from Bihar died in the stampede: Pooja Kumari, 8, from Nawada; and Neeraj Kumar, 12, from Vaishali.
Three Bihar children dead
Neeraj had gone to Delhi with his uncle and aunt, both of whom were also injured in the stampede. Back home in Dabej village, his family is in deep shock.
“Many people had gone from our village to take a holy dip in the Kumbh and my son was with his uncle and aunty. He was the youngest among our three children. He was very close to me. How will I survive now without him?” said his crying mother Kamla Devi. “Why didn’t the Railways make foolproof arrangements to handle the crowd?“ asked the bereaved mother.
Pappu Kumar lost his mother-in-law Poonam Devi, 40, in the stampede. “We were going from Delhi to Danapur and I reached the railway station by 5 p.m. The train was scheduled to depart at 9:05 p.m. There was no train on the platform at that time, when suddenly, the crowd surged,” he said. “I was about to board the Magadh Express (20802) but it was completely full and I had decided not to catch the train in that situation. I was planning to return home but this happened,” he added.
The other victims from Bihar were Aaha Devi, 79, from Buxar; Lalita Devi, 35, from Patna; Shanti Devi, 40 from Nawada.
Bihar stations on alert
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that ₹2 lakh would be given to the dependents of the deceased from Bihar from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, along with ₹50,000 for the injured. This is apart from the ₹10 lakh compensation announced by the Railways for the victims’ kin, as well as ₹2.5 lakh for seriously injured passengers, and ₹1 lakh for those with minor injuries.
Railway stations across Bihar have been put on alert in the wake of the stampede, and the Vikramshila Express leaving from Bhagalpur has been cancelled. At Bhagalpur Junction, more than 300 passengers had cancelled their reservations after news of the stampede.
‘Rail Ministry responsible’
Addressing the media in Patna, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav alleged that the stampede took place due to the mismanagement of the Railways. The former Railway Minister said that the Railway Ministry should take responsibility for the tragedy. He also took a jibe at the Maha Kumbh itself, saying, “Koi matlab hai Kumbh ka, faltu hai (The Kumbh is meaningless, useless)“.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, also took a dig at the government. “Despite so many government resources, devotees are losing their lives in the stampede, and the double-engine government is busy whitewashing these unfortunate incidents with PR [public relations]. Instead of the common people and devotees, the government’s attention is limited to media management, the comfort of VIPs, and their arrangements,” he claimed, in a post on X.
Published – February 16, 2025 09:17 pm IST