Mumbai: The Mumbai police, which has started a probe into Friday’s stampede on the Elphinstone station foot overbridge (FOB), has procured CCTV footage of the bridge connected to the staircase where the incident happened. The footage captured the “crucial 15 minutes”, from 10.15 am when the commuters’ crowd began swelling on the bridge to 10.26 am when commuters could be seen reacting and taking pictures and videos. The footage also features an official belonging Railway Protection Force (RPF) on the bridge who seemed oblivious to what was happening at the staircase.
The footage shows that the RPF constable did not react till the commuters on the bridge started clicking videos and pictures with their cell phones. The police, however, said the staircase, where the commuters were crushed to death, is a ‘blind spot’ as no CCTV unit is installed there and hence the first-hand account of turn of events would be ascertained only by recording statements of the survivors.
The footage of a camera that covers the bridge towards Parel-end reveals that around 10.26 am, a few commuters started taking pictures and videos from the bridge of what was happening at the staircase, which is an indication that the stampede was underway.
“We are in the process of recording statements, and we are looking for those who were spread rumours leading to a scare and stampede. We have got the CCTV footage, however, the spot was not covered,” said Sunil Deshmukh, assistant commissioner of police, (Dadar division).
According to the Government Railway Police sources, the public address system was allegedly activated by the local railway officials after the stampede had taken place.
As per the protocol, the station master is expected to make announcements if any incident is spotted through CCTV cameras and is required to direct the security personnel to reach the spot. Station master Anil Gupta was on rest leave when The Asian Age tried contacting him on Sunday to seek clarifications. An official from the station master’s office, however, said, “The announcements were made timely.”
Meanwhile, GRP officials claimed they are short-staffed at the station. They also said that when the stampede occurred on Friday, only two RPF guards were present at the spot.
