The death toll in the stampede at Elphinstone Road went up to 23 on Saturday, with the death of 40-year-old Satyendra Kanojia. He succumbed to head injuries at the Intensive Care Unit of the KEM Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
Kanojia was one of the 37 injured on Friday and was rushed to the hospital alive but critical. Hospital staff said he had severe head injuries and could not be saved.
Taking into account the seriousness of the incident, Railway Minster Piyush Goyal, who was in the city on Friday to inaugurate 100 suburban services, called a meeting of railway board members and other senior railway officials from Mumbai. "The minister asked us to come up with ideas which can help avoid such accidents in the future," said an official from Western Railway.
ADVERTISEMENT
PTI adds:
KEM Hospital Dean Avinash Supe said Satyendrakumar Kanojia, who was in his late forties, died on Saturday.
“The patient was put on ventilator as soon as he was admitted to the hospital. We tried to save him but he succumbed to internal injuries,” Dr. Supe said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, two persons allegedly assaulted a senior doctor at the KEM hospital on Saturday to protest the hospital’s action of marking numbers on the bodies of the stampede victims, police said.
The incident occurred in the evening when the duo, believed to be Shiv Sena workers, assaulted the forensic science head of the KEM hospital, a senior police official said. The two accused have been detained.
Authorities at the KEM hospital have come in for severe criticism for marking numbers on the victims and putting up their pictures on public display.
Bodies of 17 victims were handed over to relatives, said hospital authorities.
The railways employees joined the city in mourning the tragedy by not celebrating Dasara.