Hathras stampede: 6 sevadars held, one on the run; no mention of Baba in FIR
On Wednesday night, police entered the Baba’s ashram premises in Mainpuri but later said they had gone to check security arrangements and not for a probe
Six “sevadars” or assistants of Suraj Pal Singh alias Bhole Baba have been arrested in connection with the Hathras stampede that killed 121 people on Tuesday (July 2).
Chief sevadar Devprakash Madhukar is on the run, and a non-bailable warrant will be issued against him besides a reward of Rs 1 lakh being announced, IG Shalabh Mathur told reporters in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras on Thursday.
Strangely enough, the FIR lists these seven sevadars as accused and not their boss, the preacher who goes by the lofty title of Jagat Guru Saakar Vishwahari Bhole Baba.
Why Baba’s name is missing from FIR
All the six arrested people worked as sevadars at the ‘satsang’ run by Bhole Baba, IG Shalabh Mathur told reporters.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who visited Hathras on Wednesday and met the injured, was asked why the preacher was not named in the FIR as an accused.
“Prima facie, the case has been filed against those who applied for permission for the event. Whoever is responsible for this will come under its purview,” he said.
The FIR accuses the organisers of the satsang near Phulhari village of cramming 2.5 lakh people into the venue when they had obtained permission for only 80,000.
Police at ashram but not for probe
On Wednesday night, police entered the Baba’s ashram premises in Mainpuri but later said they had gone to check security arrangements and not for a probe. The godman was not present there anyway.
Police personnel have been deployed outside the ashram since the stampede claimed 121 lives. In reply to a question by reporters, Circle Officer Sunil Kumar Singh said police and special operation group (SOG) personnel entered the ashram premises on Wednesday night.
“There were 50-60 sevadars, including women, inside the ashram,” he said. Asked whether Bhole Baba was inside the ashram or not, Singh said, “He (Baba) was there neither yesterday nor today.”
Additional Superintendent of Police, Mainpuri, Rahul Mithas also said the preacher was not seen in his ashram. Asked why police personnel entered the ashram, he said, “We are not here for a probe. We are here to check security.”
Security personnel keep vigil outside the ashram of Bhole Baba, in Kasganj, on Thursday | PTI
Administration gets clean chit too
The FIR appears to give a clean chit to the local administration, too. It says the police and the administration did everything possible with available resources and sent the injured to hospitals but the organisers and sevadars did not cooperate.
The organisers tried to hide the actual number of people coming to the event by concealing evidence and throwing slippers and other belongings of the devotees in the nearby fields, the FIR alleges.
According to CM Adityanath, the sevadars should have taken the victims to hospital. People were dying and the sevadars fled, he claimed.
No shadow on Baba’s popularity
Bhole Baba’s popularity among his disciples do not seem to have waned either. On Wednesday, devotees were photographed by news agency PTI offering prayers outside his residence in Agra. On Thursday, too, women gathered outside his ashram in Kasganj.
At his native village Bahadurnagar in Kasganj district, people do not blame him for the Hathras tragedy. For them, he is the ‘baba’ who never asked for donations or “chadhava” (offerings) from anyone.
Baba, CM sniff a “conspiracy”
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday formed a three-member judicial commission headed by a retired high court judge to probe the Hathras tragedy, also looking into the possibility that a “conspiracy” was behind the stampede — a possibility hinted at by the Baba too. The panel will submit its report in two months.
Retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastav leads the inquiry commission, which will submit its report in two months. Retired IAS officers Hemant Rao and Bhavesh Kumar are the other members, the state government said in Lucknow.
Bhole Baba’s lawyer AP Singh has said the preacher is ready to cooperate with the administration and the police. “Some anti-social elements hatched a conspiracy,” he claimed.
“If this is not an accident, then whose conspiracy is this? All of this will be probed,” Adityanath also told reporters on Wednesday.
Bhole Baba's devotees offer prayers outside his residence in Agra on Wednesday | PTI
Court pleas
The commission will investigate whether the organisers complied with the conditions under which they got permission to hold the ‘satsang’ and look into the arrangements made by the district administration and police for crowd control.
At least two petitions were also filed in courts on Wednesday over the tragedy.
An advocate filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking the appointment of a five-member expert committee under the supervision of a retired apex court judge to probe the incident. In the Allahabad High Court, another PIL sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
How stampede happened
According to the FIR and a preliminary report by the Sikandra Rau sub divisional magistrate, the stampede took place as the preacher left the venue.
People rushed towards him — apparently to have a “darshan” and to collect some dust from the spot he had walked upon — and the sevadars shoved them away. The SDM’s report said many slipped while descending a slope next to the highway.
(With agency inputs)