Nearly two years after 36 people died when a stepwell beneath a temple in Indore collapsed during a Ramnavmi celebration, a district court in Madhya Pradesh has acquitted two senior officials of the temple trust due to lack of evidence. The court observed that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against the accused.
The incident occurred on March 30, 2023, at Shri Baleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple in Indore’s Sarvoday Nagar. The temple had been built over an old, closed stepwell. During a religious gathering, as dozens of devotees participated in a “hawan” ceremony around 11:40 am, the floor suddenly gave way, plunging 54 people into the well. Thirty-six people lost their lives, while several others sustained injuries.
30 March 2023 On Thursday, the Indore district and sessions court acquitted temple trust president Sewaram Galani and secretary Murli Kumar Sabnani. Both had been charged under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. Defence lawyer Raghavendra Singh Bais said that the court found the police had failed to provide conclusive evidence linking the two officials to the tragedy. He added that some key witnesses had turned hostile during the trial, weakening the prosecution’s case.
According to the prosecution, the trust officials allowed the religious event despite being aware of the temple’s structural fragility. They claimed that the temple and stepwell were in a dilapidated condition, a fact allegedly known to the officials prior to the event.
However, the defence argued that the temple trust had already informed the authorities about the poor state of the structure. Bains said that on April 23, 2022, the municipal Building Officer issued a notice, and the trust responded on April 25, alerting officials to the urgent need for repairs. Despite these warnings, the Indore Municipal Corporation allegedly failed to take necessary action.
The FIR was filed on March 31, 2023, a day after the collapse, at Juni Police Station in Indore. The case attracted widespread attention due to the scale of the tragedy and the involvement of an illegally constructed temple. With the acquittal of Galani and Sabnani, the focus may now shift to the role of municipal authorities.
