LIVE | Tirupati stampede: 6 killed; CM Naidu orders judicial probe

Hundreds of devotees had turned up from across the country for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam, a special ‘darshan’, commencing from January 10.

Tirupati district collector S Venkateswar has told reporters that five of the deceased devotees were women.

“One deceased person came from Salem in Tamil Nadu and another from Narsipatnam in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

SP, 2 officials transferred

Viral videos of the incident showed police administering CPR on a couple of women devotees and injured persons being shifted in ambulances.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said he would order a judicial inquiry into the stampede incident, besides transferring three senior officials including the district Superintendent of Police.

Addressing a press conference, Naidu said he has ordered suspension of two officials, including a DSP, for their dereliction.

He further said he noticed some loopholes or leakages in the administration and monitoring mechanisms in Tirupati which should have been 'perfect'.

What triggered the stampede?

A heavy jostle among the crowd at the ticket counter at MGM High School in Bairagipatteda is suspected to have led to the stampede. Eyewitness told reporters that around 60 people fell on each other while collecting the darshan tickets, leading to the stampede.

Reports say that a huge crowd of devotees had gathered outside over 90 ticket counters set up for the Vaikuntha Ekadasi festival starting Friday.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the temple administration body had made arrangement for distribution of 1,20,000 tokens to devotees for the ‘sarva darshan’ (free darshan) of the deity for the first three days of the 10-day festival.

But even though darshan tokens were slated to be distributed at the counters from 5 am on Thursday, a mammoth crowd gathered outside the counters on Wednesday night itself.

‘Crowd of 5,000 jostled outside counter’

While counters were set up at 94 places, Tirupati Municipal Commissioner said pushing and jostling were reported outside the counter set up at MGM High School near the Vishnu Nivasam temple. He said a crowd of around 4,000-5,000 people had gathered outside it from Wednesday morning itself, and by evening turned unruly.

TTD chairman BR Naidu said all hell broke loose when the counter gate was opened to allow a woman who was feeling unwell to leave the place. This led to a forward surge of the crowd, triggering the deadly stampede.

Several devotees have also alleged mismanagement and failure to put crowd-control measures in place by the administration.

It is also being alleged that ambulances didn’t reach the stampede site on time, delaying the shifting of the injured to the hospital.

Probe initiated

BR Naidu, however, asserted that it was just an accident.

“I had suspected something could go wrong and warned officials not to take it easy. There were rumours spread that not everyone may be allowed in Tirumala,” he said.The Tirupati East Police have registered two separate FIRs following the deaths of multiple devotees. A probe has also been initiated into the incident to see if the police was at fault in managing crowd.

Govt announces compensation for victims

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government has announced Rs 25 lakh compensation for the families of those who died in the stampede. A team of ministers visited Tirupati to meet the victims' families and assure them of the government's support.

Home Minister Anitha, Revenue Minister Angani Satya Prasad, Endowments Minister Anam Rama Narayana Reddy, and other senior officials inspected the bodies at Ruia Hospital on Thursday morning. They met grieving families, gathered details about the victims, and announced a thorough investigation into the incident. Strict action will be taken against staff found negligent, with CCTV footage from the token issuance centres under review, they said.

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