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HC seeks Kerala govt report on Sabarimala tragedy

January 17, 2011 12:39 IST

The Kerala high court on Monday directed the state government to file a report before January 20 on the stampede at Pullmedu area that claimed 102 lives of Ayyappa devotees who were returning home after darshan at Sabarimala Temple on Friday last.

Division bench comprising Justice Thottathil Radhakrishnan and P S Gopinathan directed the Police, Forest and Travancore Devaswom board to file reports regarding the reasons for the accident.

'We want to know what happened. Explain how the mishap occurred,' the bench, that is monitoring the affairs of Sabarimala during the festival season, said while giving the direction.

The court wanted to know the steps taken by the government to provide help to the injured and also to those stranded in the area after the accident.

The court also wanted to know how the incident happened as there was already direction to take necessary steps to monitor crowd control.

Also See: PIX: 104 killed, 50 injured in Sabarimala stampede