Vrindavan (Mathura), 20th August 2022: On the occasion of Janamashtami, a huge crowd gathered in the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan late at night. During this, a woman and a man died due to suffocation. Many people were removed from the crowd by the police as their conditions deteriorated. CM Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over this accident.
The Mangala Aarti started at 1.55 am. This happens only once a year so there was a huge crowd.
The temple has two exit gates, number 4 and number 1. At the number 4 gate, a devotee fainted due to suffocation. By the time the police personnel took him out, the crowd of devotees leaving the temple had gathered on the spot. This caused the other devotees to suffocate. This happened at around 1:55 am.
The devotees who were injured in this accident were sent to Rama Krishna Mission, Braj Health Care and Sau Shaiya Hospital in Vrindavan.
Nirmala Devi, a resident of Noida Sector 99 and Ram Prasad Vishwakarma (65), a resident of Rukmani Vihar, died.
A heavy police force including DM, SSP, and Municipal Commissioner was present at the time when the accident happened in the temple. Soon after the accident, police and private security personnel started evacuating the fainting devotees from the temple.
The relatives were not ready for the post-mortem and took the dead body with them.