Elphinstone Road stampede: Bombay High Court issues notices to Western Railways and NIA

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Western Railway and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for their response to a PIL seeking a probe by the anti-terror agency into the stampede on the railway foot-over bridge last week. On 29 September, a stampede on the stairwell of a narrow foot-over-bridge (FOB) at the station left 23 dead and over 30 injured. “Issue notice to respondents…petition to be heard after three weeks,” a division bench headed by Justice BR Gavai said. [caption id=“attachment_4107555” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] At least 23 people were killed in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station. PTI[/caption] The court said NIA’s lawyer Aruna Kamat Pai and Western Railway’s advocate Suresh Kumar should respond on the next date of hearing while posting the matter for three weeks. The PIL filed by city residents Faisal Banaraswala and Abdul Qureshi sought the Indian Railways to remove bottlenecks on such bridges, clear pathways, install escalators and create multiple entry and exit points. “Several commuters who take the bridge on a regular basis had warned railway officials and the government via letters and tweets about the condition of the bridge. But no action was taken,” the PIL submitted. The PIL claimed that the stampede was triggered by a rumour that the bridge was going to collapse. “The rumour sparked chaos among the commuters. The police is required to investigate if the incident is a soft terror attack. The NIA should be asked to probe this angle,” said the petition.