Mainpuri: Roop Devi bows down in front of Bhole Baba’s ashram in Mainpuri, weeping profusely. Neither rain nor mud nor people’s comments can deter her. “Ye kya ho gaya baba! Ye kya ho gaya (What has happened)!” she exclaims and continues to cry for half an hour.
“Parmatma supported me during my tough times. So, it is my turn to be here for him,” she says, wiping her eyes.
Devi is among the many followers of Suraj Pal Singh, or Narayan Sakaar Hari, or Bhole Baba — a self-styled godman from western Uttar Pradesh. More than 120 people, mostly women and children, tragically died in a stampede Tuesday while attending the godman’s satsang in Hathras.
From the gathering in Hathras, Singh drove down to his palatial ashram in Bichhawan near Mainpuri, a police officer stationed outside the ashram told ThePrint.
The ashram was raided by the police late at night on 3 July, but the godman was not found. The police remain tight-lipped about their investigation.
DSP Sunil Kumar told reporters that Singh wasn’t inside the ashram. “There are 40-50 sevaks inside. But Baba wasn’t there. Neither yesterday, nor is he there today,” he said.
Close to a dozen police officers, including inspectors and a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) have been constantly guarding the ashram, as media and a swarm of followers continue to surround it.
An FIR has been filed in the case. Police have booked the organiser of the event, Devprakash Mathur, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 105 (culpable homicide), 110 (homicide), 126 (wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement), 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), and 238 (disappearance of evidence). Singh has not been named in the FIR, registered Tuesday night.
A statement released by the godman blamed ‘anti-social elements’ for the tragedy. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who visited Hathras Wednesday, did not rule out the possibility of a “conspiracy” behind the accident, and ordered a judicial inquiry into the case.
‘We feared bulldozer justice’
Prem Chand rushed to Mainpuri from Hathras with a small brown bag across his shoulders when he heard a rumour that the ashram was about to be demolished.
“I heard that they were going to demolish the ashram with a bulldozer. So, I came here to save it,” Chand tells ThePrint outside the ashram in Bichhawan village.
Chand and others fear that the Uttar Pradesh administration will demolish the ashram as part of ‘bulldozer justice’, following the stampede at Hathras.
The ashram was built on two acres of farmland just four years ago, with no other building or house in sight in a five-kilometre radius, except that of a milkman, who lives there with two cows. “I don’t believe in going to babas, but I supply fresh milk to the ashram every day,” says Hari, the milkman.
Chand, a Faridabad resident, was also present at the satsang in Hathras as a sevadaar. “Parmatma (Singh) did not do anything wrong. He is pure of heart,” he says.
“But even if he did do something wrong, the police will investigate him. He is also human, not above mistakes,” Chand adds.
It is evident that the godman’s appeal is strong among Dalits in the area, while members of forward castes harbour disdain towards him. “He is a sanatan virodhi. I don’t know where he came from or what he talked about,” says a Mainpuri resident.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)