Kasganj/Firozabad: “Sab dhakosla hai aur duniya lakir ki fakir hai (all this is deception and people are reactionist),” says Ram Sanehi Rajput, who retired as a Uttar Pradesh Police sub-inspector, reminiscing about how his one-time senior Surajpal Jatav, once booked for attempting to ‘revive’ a dead 16-year-old girl, built a cult around himself.
Rajput remembers the time he and Jatav were deployed as sub-inspectors in Kanpur Dehat district in 1993. “He was normal at first but later his behaviour changed. After he left the UP Police sometime in the 2000s, he once came to me and told me he was going to start converting people. I told him I won’t oppose you but won’t support you either,” Rajput tells ThePrint.
A stampede during a religious congregation of Jatav in Hathras on 2 July resulted in the deaths of 123 followers, including more than 100 women. The matter was probed by a special investigation team (SIT) which submitted its report to the Uttar Pradesh government last week.
The Shri Narayan Sakar Hari Charitable trust formed by Jatav reportedly runs around 24 ashrams across India.
Sitting on a charpoy outside his house in Chak village of Kasganj’s Patiyali area, Rajput says Surajpal Jatav “served as a court moharir (clerk) in Agra, then in the civil police in Etawah and was later shifted to the local intelligence unit”.
Jatav’s father Nanhe Singh Jatav was a history sheeter, he adds, although Patiyali police claim they don’t have old records confirming the same.
According to Rajput, the ashram in neighbouring Bahadur Nagar village, where Jatav — who around this time embraced the moniker ‘Bhole Baba’ — and his followers regularly held congregations, was built around 1997.
About 200 meters from Rajput’s house, resides the family of former sub-inspector Bhagwan Singh, whose son recalls witnessing Jatav’s birth anniversary celebrations at the ashram. Each year, followers of Bhole Baba observe 15 August as his birth anniversary.
“Earlier we, too, would attend their congregations. Sometime in the 2000s, when I was in sixth standard, I once saw a lot of people gather around him. He was being bathed in milk and they used the same milk to prepare kheer which was distributed across villagers here. I never went there again,” says the son.
Rajput adds that satsang (prayer meetings) would go on at the ashram throughout the day and night, until there were reports of sexual assault. “A lot of women would attend his satsang. Earlier, satsang would continue throughout day and night but gradually, the followers stopped gathering in the night as there were reports of sexual assault of women. Complaints would seldom be lodged at the local police station,” he says.
He also points out that young girls and women surrounding Jatav to “serve him, massage him” was a common sight.
Bhagwan Singh’s son adds that Jatav and his family had been staying in the village and left only after the UP Police began to conduct raids on his premises in the wake of the arrest of rape convict and godman Asaram Bapu in 2013.
“In the wake of Asaram Bapu’s arrest, police started gathering information about him (Jatav) too. He fled the area and never returned,” says the son.
Jatav’s youngest brother still stays in Bahadur Nagar, in a one-storey house behind the ashram.
When ThePrint visited, his daughter Aarti said the family had no ties with Jatav. “My father is the youngest of six brothers while Bhole Baba is second of the six. We have no ties with him. He has said in several congregations that he doesn’t have any relatives.”
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‘Reviving’ the dead & ‘healing’ hand pump
About 100 km from Bahadur Nagar, along NH-19, is Jalsa Resort in Firozabad’s Tundla area. Its owner is retired UP Police inspector Tejveer Singh Yadav, the man who arrested Surajpal Jatav in March 2000.
Yadav remembers leading a team of policemen to a cremation ground in Agra’s Shahganj, where he was posted at the time. “We received information that a godman was attempting to revive a dead girl aged about 16-17 years. When we reached the spot we saw 300-400 followers along with the Baba who was sitting with the dead body. He was reciting ‘ek aakar, ek nirakar’. He claimed she would get up and start drinking milk.”
Yadav adds that despite police attempting to convince him otherwise, Jatav stayed put and later his followers attacked police, even pelting stones at personnel. “Force (backup) had to be called from other police stations and we sent some five-six persons to jail along with the Baba,” he tells ThePrint.
However, a reinvestigation was ordered into the case — courtesy Bhole Baba and his “approach”, according to Yadav.
A case was lodged against six persons, including Jatav, his wife and supporters under Sections 2(c) and 7 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, and Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Agra’s Shahganj police station.
As Yadav explains it, the case was being investigated by a sub-inspector who filed a chargesheet naming Jatav, but a reinvestigation was ordered and the case was handed over to a circle officer-rank officer who filed a final report (precursor to closure report) in the case. “They lodged an FR (final report) in a case registered by the police and where its own force was attacked. They should have not lodged an FR,” laments Yadav.
Hema Parihar, then the BJP councillor from Shahganj’s Kedar Nagar, remembers how some people arrived at her doorstep on 18 March, 2000, and informed her about what was going on at the local cremation ground.
Parihar, who calls Bhole Baba a tantrik (occultist), was the one who alerted the police.
“He had no children of his own. I was told he adopted the daughter of his brother-in-law and killed her because he was trying to do siddhi (tantrik act) on her. He tried to take out her kaleja (liver) to perform some tantrik act but failed. After her death, he kept the dead body at his house for two days and later brought it to the cremation ground where he was trying to revive her. When I objected to it, his followers told me that the Baba was doing siddhi and would revive her. He tried to escape from the spot but I didn’t let him and called the police,” she tells ThePrint.
Parihar adds that a few days later, followers of Bhole Baba came to her with a message — he wanted to meet her at a location other than his ashram, which by this time had been shut, to “honour” her. She refused.
But, for Parihar, escaping the shadow of Bhole Baba has not been easy.
Barely 200 metres from her house is a two-storey building with a marbled floor and tile walls. It belongs to Bhole Baba and neighbours say more floors were added to it in recent years, thanks to donations from followers who continue to come here to pay their respects before a locked door. One such follower was Chandravati Devi, a woman in her 60s who prostrated before the locked door of the house, after which she began to clean the doorstep with her bare hands.
Asked what made her believe in Bhole Baba, she says: “I had gastrointestinal issues which were cured.”
Parihar explains that Jatav installed a hand pump inside his house and would claim that its water could cure all diseases, including cancer.
Rajput, quoted earlier, confirms that Jatav would claim to cure people of a wide range of diseases, even cancer. “Is it possible to cure a person of cancer like this?” he asks.
The ‘miraculous charan raj’
Regardless of the deadly stampede earlier this month, for many of his followers, Bhole Baba is God-incarnate. They still flock to his ashram in Bahadur Nagar despite the self-styled godman seldom visiting it.
“He (Jatav) is poorna brahma (God incarnate). He has no beginning and no end,” says Guddu, a native of Budaun who was at the ashram for “Prakatya Diwas” (manifestation day), held each year on 14 July.
Pappi Devi of Nagla Babu village in Mursan area of Hathras, too, claims Bhole Baba is no ordinary being, but an incarnation of God. She has been a follower for the past 18 years.
“He (Jatav) is not a mortal. I used to be so ill. I used to suffer from acidity and stomach-related problems, but today thanks to Bhole Baba I am well. I am a small sevadaar (servant) in the feet of the prabhu (lord) and will continue to serve him till my death. Both my sons have got a job in UP Police and Delhi Police respectively,” she tells ThePrint, adding that she even introduced her neighbour Lata Devi to Bhole Baba.
Lata Devi claims before she became a follower of the self-styled godman, she lost three buffaloes and her daughter was “possessed”.
“My daughter was freed of the ghost. Now, we have gotten her married,” she adds.
“I know that in Rajasthan (ashram), if people collect his (Jatav’s) charan raj and apply it on their bodies, their health improves,” claims Pappi Devi.
CCTV cameras, ‘Gopikas’ & ‘Matashree’
Devendra Bainiwal, owner of Bainiwal Garden in Basai village in Firozabad’s Tundla, too, has many stories about Bhole Baba. His first encounter with Bhole Baba was in 2015, ahead of a congregation on a plot not far from his resort. He says the followers approached him for rooms for Bhole Baba and his aides. “They said they were Jatavs and couldn’t afford it and asked me to provide some rooms. I thought of it as charity and agreed.”
However, Bainiwal alleges followers of Bhole Baba “took over” the resort and even stopped him and his younger brother from entering the premises.
“As soon as his followers entered, they took over the area and the first thing they did was to remove the CCTV cameras. My objections were no use. Some of them said they wanted to build washrooms and some rooms for the Baba’s aides. They built three of them overnight. We were not allowed to enter the premises during Baba’s stay. There were Endeavours, Fortuners, Innovas in his cavalcade. A curtain would surround the cavalcade whenever the Baba entered his car or exited,” Bainiwal tells ThePrint.
He also remembers witnessing one congregation held on the resort’s lawn.
“During their stay in our resort, a congregation was organised on our lawn. I saw young girls aged 17-25 arrive in lehengas, all decked up and dressed as gopikas, they performed dance on bhajans and once the Baba left the spot, I saw them crying and screaming as if they had lost someone. They were bewildered and some of them even got injured in the melee as they ran after him, screaming. Some got injuries on their hands, some on their heads. It was baffling,” he recalls.
Bainiwal claims that while male followers of Bhole Baba would maintain some distance from the self-styled godman’s room, he saw women followers surround the room and pass on messages to followers. “The women were dressed in black and one of them would carry a walkie-talkie with her. She would pass on the Baba’s directions and messages,” he says, adding that the Baba’s aides had created a temporary kitchen inside his room.
“It had led to a seepage inside the room which I got to know about but I was not allowed to enter it. Even now, there are marks on the floor. After that we never gave them our resort for stay despite multiple requests,” he says.
Bainiwal also remembers Surajpal’s wife Premwati alias ‘Matashree’ meeting the followers who would arrive to catch a glimpse of the Baba. “She would meet only those she wanted to. I have seen her chide people badly she did not want to meet,” he said.
Bhole Baba & Jatav votes
Also living in Basai village, the family of late Hiralal, once head of the local organising committee of Bhole Baba’s satsang, say they don’t participate in it anymore.
His son Manoj tells ThePrint, “He (father) devoted his life to the satsang. He was honest which is why we would be asked to head the committee. But, a few years back, Bhole Baba said something about donations for the congregation which my father didn’t like. He was subsequently sidelined and others like Upendra Yadav took over the organising committee.”
Yadav is among the seven followers of the self-styled godman arrested by the UP Police in the aftermath of the Hathras stampede.
“I have not been in touch with him but I can say that he engaged in property dealings and was very close to Bhole Baba. He belongs to Shikohabad and has exploited several poor persons. Upendra organised several congregations over the past few years,” says Manoj.
A source close to the Firozabad organising committee tells ThePrint that parcels of land in Basai village where Bhole Baba’s congregations were held in the past either belonged to Devi Charan Aggarwal, a local businessman, or Tundla Nagar Palika chairman Bhanwar Singh. “Bhanwar Singh and Bhikam Singh, another politician from Agra, would help organise the congregations,” says the source, who did not wish to be named.
A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bhanwar Singh, admits to having given space for a congregation a few years back.
Asked about Bhole Baba’s political connections, he tells ThePrint, “Jatavs follow him and listen to him. Politicians visit him. There is a lot of crowd behind him, people are like bhedh-chaal (mob mentality). Jatav and Baghel votes are the most in this constituency. Former MLA and minister Ashok Yadav organised several of his congregations. Later, he made a video of Bhole Baba in which exchange of money was shown. Since then, the godman started getting CCTV cameras around him removed.”
Ashok Yadav, tourism minister in the Rajnath Singh government, was sacked by the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2001 and was later booked on charges of rape, extortion, assault and loot, among others.
Asked about Bhole Baba’s claims that he does not take funds, Bhanwar Singh maintains that people give the self-styled godman donations.
Tejveer Singh Yadav, quoted earlier, adds that while earlier, only Dalits especially those belonging to Jatav community would participate in the Baba’s congregations, now even Yadavs have started taking part. “Those who would pay him visits are mostly uneducated. Members of Dalit community, especially, follow him. Politicians are after their vote bank. Netas would pay him visits. Women are very devoted to him,” says Yadav.
Back in Bahadur Nagar, Bhole Baba’s followers continued to flock to the ashram in large numbers for “Prakatya Diwas” when ThePrint visited mid-July. Sevadaars dressed in pink could be seen guiding them.
“You should also recite his mantra. It will rid you of all problems,” Mukesh Babu, a kirana store owner who had come for the event along with his family from Malawan, Etah, advised this correspondent.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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