In a tragic turn of circumstances, a 39-year-old mother who had stepped out to catch the latest release Pushpa 2: The Rule in Hyderabad with her nine-year-old son lost her life in a stampede outside the theatre. Her son was in a critical condition on Wednesday night. The Hyderabad Police registered a case under BNS Section 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 118(1) read with 3(5) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt) based on the complaint of the family members.
Prima facie, it appears that movie star Allu Arjun, hero of this film, was expected to attend the premiere which led the crowds to swell; the Hyderabad Police claim that neither the star’s team or the theatre management informed them of his presence which might have led to better crowd control — and possibly saved lives. While this is true, it is also a matter of grave concern that numerous lives have been lost in stampedes every year across India even when the police were present on site. Nearly 121 people died — a majority of them women — in July this year at Hathras during a stampede at a religious gathering.
The majority of stampedes in India occur at religious sites or during such gatherings; the rest when people move impulsively at venues that host celebrities, especially film stars and during a sudden collapse of a bridge or a pathway. The norms and protocols of crowd control exist but mostly on paper; implementing them on every occasion that brings crowds calls for a high level of anticipation and preparedness of the local police. Either way, whether informed or not, the buck stops at the door of the police.
