On November 25, Avinash Garg, a 20-year-old from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, was a bundle of energy as he stood waiting for the gate to the sheltered auditorium, open from the sides, on the main campus of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) in Kalamassery, near Kochi, to be thrown open. It was 6.30 p.m. The semi-circular auditorium, on the south-west side of the nearly 310-acre campus, slopes down from the road level and is located adjacent to the varsity canteen and the student amenities centre.
He was looking forward to a performance by the popular singer-song writer Nikhita Gandhi of Bollywood fame, marking Dhishna, the annual techno-fest of the School of Engineering (SoE). Final preparations were on inside the auditorium even as student volunteers were admitting peers in small batches. Those who had paid ₹1,200, about 400 students, were sent in first; the rest, about 700, were waiting outside, say students. At 6.45 p.m. joyful excitement turned to horror.
“As the laser lights blazed on stage amid an announcement that the programme was about to start, there was a sudden push from the crowd. The gate burst open under the pressure, and I fell. Before I knew what was happening, there was a pile of bodies over me,” recalled a grief-stricken Avinash, who studies BTech Computer Science at SoE.
