MIDNAPORE: Five agencies from both the Union and state governments, including the Cabinet secretariat’s security wing and the Intelligence Bureau, started an investigation into the collapse of a shamiana at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Midnapore on Monday.Bengal agencies and the BJP, predictably, started a blame game — trying to fix responsibility on each other for the mishap — with one particular set of circumstances serving to highlight the politics that followed the incident that left 99 people injured. Bengal cops called Rajiv Singh, owner of the Kolkata-based J N Decorator (which constructed the tent that collapsed), to Midnapore for questioning; Singh reached the Midnapore Police Lines in the afternoon. But several Bengal cops — who were supposed to question Singh — were, instead, closeted with investigators from central agencies at the Midnapore Circuit House for a large part of Tuesday, which they said “delayed” their own probe.Another set of tit-for-tat moves showed even more clearly how politics had taken over the incident. A Midnapore resident lodged a complaint, accusing the “decorator, organisers and unknown persons” of several crimes, including culpable homicide, which the local police promptly converted into an FIR. (The decorator, incidentally, works out of a hole-in-the-wall joint in central Kolkata, a stone’s throw from the state BJP headquarters off Central Avenue.)A few hours later, the state BJP threatened to move the Calcutta High Court against the state police for alleged “lapses and negligence”.BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu said the state unit was sending a report to the Prime Minister’s Office regarding “administrative lacunae”. “We will file a case against the state administration’s negligence,” he said.And if state forensic experts identified “glaring gaps in planning” that led the tent — held up by cast iron pipes — to collapse, the BJP blamed police for deploying civic volunteers and leaving the Midnapore College grounds open when they should have cordoned it off to preempt the movement of the crowd to the PM’s dais.Additional director-general of Bengal’s Intelligence Branch, Siddh Nath Gupta, and West Midnapore police superintendent Aloke Rajoria reached the Midnapore collegiate grounds around 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday. A team from the State Forensic Laboratory in Bengachhia reached the spot 30 minutes after the cops left. Team leader and Physics Division head Chitrakhya Sarkar said each cast-iron pipe required four screws to be pinned to the ground but only one screw was used; the pipes themselves were rusty at places.The ground, too, was wet and soggy and needed additional support, which was not given, the officials found. The tarpaulin cover had also become heavy because of the accumulated rain water and added to the load on the pipes. “We have also sought CCTV footage from police before we prepare the final report,” Sarkar said.Midnapore cops said Subir Samantha, engaged by the organisers to provide cable TV link-up, had told them that the tent that collapsed was supposed to have four CCTV cameras but had only one functional camera. And labour contractor Subhas Rawat told reporters that he had photographs to prove that people had climbed on the iron rods. “What will happen if you put 500 kilograms on a rod that can bear weight of 10 kilograms? We have worked at other PM rallies but have never encountered such a situation,” he added..The second half of the day saw the team from Delhi working on overdrive. The two-member team from the union cabinet secretariat’s security wing, along woith other central probe officers, reached the Midnapore Circuit House at 2.30 p.m. and immediately summoned top local officials, including SP Rajoria, West Midnapore district magistrate P Mohan Gandhi and those working with the local electric, health and PWD agencies. The meeting got over only after 9 p.m. but no one came on record to say what transpired in those 400-odd minutes.S K Sinha and Arti Bhatnagar, secretary and joint secretary, respectively, in the cabinet secretariat’s security wing, were part of the meeting; officials said the Intelligence Bureau had started a parallel probe, prompting a cautious response from Nabanna.“The Special Protection Group takes charge of any meeting venue a week before the PM’s meeting but it did not interact with state cops even once this time,” a top Bengal security official said. “But we will extend all help. There is no question of any lapse,” he added.

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