Congress leader Sourabh Mithu Madan was the organiser of the Amritsar Dussehra event that led to the train tragedy. (Source: Facebook/Sourabh Madan Mithu)
Day after releasing a video in his defence, Congress leader Sourabh Mithu Madan, who was the organiser of the Amritsar Dussehra event that led to the train tragedy, met mediapersons and claimed that he was not responsible for the accident. The local Congress leader resurfaced on Wednesday after being underground for five days after the train mishap. Madan interacted with the media at his friend’s place in Amritsar.
Mithu Madan said: “I am ready to face any probe over the accident. I will appear before any investigating agency that summons me. I have nothing to hide.” He added that he was informed about deaths on the tracks after Navjot Kaur Sidhu, former MLA and wife of Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, had left the venue.
“My whole family was on stage, including my wife, mother and my father. Then someone told me some people had been killed and then an announcement was made about more than 50 being killed. I attempted going towards the accident site, but then someone told me that people were coming after me in anger. I couldn’t understand anything and left the venue in haste. Before I reached my home, I came to know that my house had been attacked. I also went to the hospital, but came back after sensing people’s anger against me. I and my family are going through a tough time,” said Mithu.
He added: “I am not responsible for the accident. I had taken all the permissions and function was within the boundary wall of the Dhobi Ghat ground. Around 100 policemen were present for security. They asked us to put up some barricades and we did it.”
About the permissions, he elaborated: “I went to the Municipal Corporation Office on October 15 to get required permission for the event. MCA commissioner Sonali Giri herself was not present but her PA was available. I had given request in written and PA also noted down it in the diary. He also gave me entry number in the dairy which is 7521. Then MCA also sent fire tenders and water tankers for the event.” When asked if railways was informed, he said: “We didn’t inform railways because our programme was not inside the boundary of railways. Otherwise posters of the event were everywhere at Jaura railway crossing and everyone there knew that function was going to be held at the Dhobi Ghat.”
He added: “It is false allegation that we had installed screens facing the railway tracks. We had only two screens one was on the stage, which was parallel to the railway tracks, and not facing towards them. The second screen was installed facing the main road, which runs parallel to the tacks on the other side with the Dussehra ground between them. We made no arrangements to make people attend the function standing on railways track.” Mithu said that it was for the first time that he had organised the event. “Such events give employment to many….Some people have been trying to play politics over the accident and they have been instigating crowds against me. But now I have decided to go to the victims’ families and meet them,” he said, adding, “Neither I nor Navjot Kaur Sidhu is responsible for the accident.”
He said, “Entry for the public was from the roadside. But some people living in the area across the railway line came from the railway tracks’ side and started the standing there. We made repeated requests to them to move vacate the tracks.”