2.5 lakh people were present at event, organisers tried hiding figures: FIR

An FIR filed in the case says over 2.5 lakh people had gathered for the event even though the organisers had sought permission for about 80,000 people for which police and the administration made arrangements.

The FIR was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence.

The FIR also says that after the stampede broke out, the police and administration officials did everything possible and sent the injured from the available resources to hospitals but the organisers and 'sevadars' did not cooperate.

The organisers also tried to hide the actual number of people coming to the event by hiding evidence and throwing slippers and other belongings of the devotees in nearby fields, the FIR alleged.

Asphyxia due to compression was the leading cause of death, a senior doctor in an Etah hospital said. The hospital performed four times the usual number of autopsies in a day in the aftermath of the stampede, he said.