The majority of casualties were women and children who were crushed to death under the crowd's feet as they scrambled to escape the police line.

The Maharashtra state government appointed the one-man Justice S S Dani Commission to investigate the event,[1] but it held nobody responsible and referred to the tragedy as an "unfortunate" one.

The commission also cleared state Chief Minister Sharad Pawar and the rest of the government for any responsibility in the incident.

[3] Maharashtra's Tribal Development Minister Madhukar Pichad later resigned, accepting moral responsibility for the tragedy.

For quite some time, the Gowari community had been demanding Scheduled Tribe status to avail themselves of the benefits of reservations in government jobs and education.

[1] Meanwhile, the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena coalition took immediate political advantage of this tragedy and it became one of the factors for the Indian National Congress losing the state elections of 1995.

However, the commission suggested that water sprayers and rubber bullets be used first and that police should carry out baton charges only as a last resort, after giving two warnings.

Political efforts to assimilate 2 percent SBC under already existing scheduled tribe or other backward caste (OBC) quotas have faced tough opposition from their respective legislators' lobby.

[8] The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on 15 August 2018 ruled that Gowari community in Maharashtra should get benefits under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, pointing out that Gowaris were categorised as a tribe more than hundred years ago in the records of British India.