Exclusive/ Cochin Stampede: Did the authorities failed to pay heed to security at the event?

Last week, the CUSAT stampede at Cochin University's annual festival claimed lives of four people and injured over 60 people. The state government following the incident decided to constitute an expert committee to look into the matter.

The Republic TV managed to get access to documents of the principal of Cochin University of Science and Technology, School of Engineering Dr. Dipak Kumar Sahoo. The documents showed that the head had written a letter to the registrar of the university requesting adequate police and security personnel at the concert venue where 3 students and 1 outsider died due to a stampede on November 25 evening.

However, the police said that no written request received by them.

The letter by Sahoo with the subject line 'a, ' Dhisna 2023 Police and Security during off-campus musical program' requests to deploy sufficient security and police to avoid untoward incidents.

Explaining the need, the principal wrote that two of the events being held as part of the Engineering Tech Fest are being conducted outside the engineering college campuses for which more security measures must be provided.

"These activities have access to the public due to their location. It is essential to deploy adequate security staff and police," it read.

The letter hints at a possibility of negligence from the college's higher authorities for not paying attention to the need for stringent crowd control measures that lead to loss of lives of three students of the campus.

The letter was also marked to all the HODs of the engineering department as well as the security officer in CUSAT.

Responding to the letter upon query by Republic, the Registrar's office acknowledged receiving the letter from the principal and confirmed it was forwarded to the security officer for providing enough security. " A copy of it was also sent to special crime branch in police as well requesting for security," stated the PA of the Registrar of University Dr Meera.

Meera's office while speaking to Republic underlined that there were few policemen and security in place that were deployed in the event.

Republic further connected with a security department in CUSAT. A person who wanted to remain anonymous, stated that usually for events in the open-air auditorium, the crowd control is managed by security staff and in some festivals, students themselves take the charge.

"In most festivals, it is our department that does the crowd control. However, in this engineering college fest the convenor of the festival themselves took responsibility for crowd management," he stated.

When asked if there is a standard practice, the assistant said that the security arrangements differs from department to department and there are no laid-out formats.

Further when asked about his evaluation of the open-air venue, especially the dangerous steep stairs where 4 lives were lost, he replied that it's a 30-year-old design.

"You must ask the festival convenor why they took responsibility for crowd management at the venue. There was enough confusion at the event venue for the organisers," he hinted.

Policy say no permission

In contrast, the Police on Sunday clarified that CUSAT did not provide sufficient information to the police and seek permission for organising a musical event. The City Police Commissioner A Akbar underlined that the department didn't receive any official letter asking for crowd management.

"CUSAT authorities did not contact police raising any such demand,” the commissioner stated. CUSAT Vice-Chancellor P G Sankaran admitted that although no written request was provided, the police were informed orally about the event. "Six policemen were present at the venue during the program, " stated the vice-chancellor.