The five-member panel formed to assess the cause of the September 29 stampede that killed 23 people at Mumbai's Prabhadevi (erstwhile Elphinstone) railway station, has blamed the mishap on the rains and rumours.

The panel's report says Mumbai police, in its probe, found two reasons - rain and the increasing crowd. There were no comments on capacity building, overcrowding infrastructure development. The report also suggests encroachment around the area needs to be removed.

“The incident was caused due to panic and confusion created on the bridge coupled with rains. No one can be held responsible for the incident,” Ravinder Bhaker, Chief Public Relations Officer, WR said.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has refused to comment on the report.

The report also doesn't mention infrastructure development of the narrow length of the footover bridge (FOB).

The Chief Security Officer of the Western Railway has reportedly given a clean chit to authorities in the inquiry. The probe for the incident which killed 23 people was initiated on September 29 itself.

Earlier, a probe by Dadar police said that the rumours were created as someone said, "phool gir gaya" (flowers have fallen) which was misheard as "Pul gir gaya" (bridge has fallen)

The Chief safety officer suggested commuters travelling with heavy luggage not be allowed during peak hours.

The report recommends relocating booking counters, regulation of vendors entry, additional CCTV cameras etc.

A lot of commuters carry heavy luggage - fruit vendors, vegetable vendors. They can be most affected by the result of this report.

The norms set by the CAG suggests a footover bridge should be of atleast 236 inches, whereas the Elphinstone footover bridge is just 77 inches.

The report does not talk about construction of new footover bridge, capacity building, and infrastructure development.

Waris Pathan, MIM, MLA (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Byculla MLA, Waris Pathan also expressed disgust over the results of the report.