New Delhi: It was around 2 pm Tuesday when self-styled preacher Narayan Sakar Hari, also known as ‘Bhole Baba’, finished his satsang and was leaving UP’s Fulrai village, followed by devotees who rushed to collect the soil he walked on.
As a sea of people emerged from the venue, they did not notice those sitting or bowing down outside, and ended up trampling them. Within minutes, there was chaos, and the air was filled with wails and screams. Those trying to escape were forcefully stopped by the satsang’s organisers who wielded sticks, causing the crowd to swell and stagnate. Many women and children were crushed, crying for help. It took over two hours to bring the situation under control.
Sources in the Hathras police told ThePrint that the sevadars and private security of the godman pushed people to stop them from reaching him.
“He reached at 12.30 pm and the event went on for an hour. Once he started leaving, women ran towards the direction of the vehicle collecting soil, performing prostration and wanting to touch his feet. When some people started running towards the fields, the sevadars started stopping them. Some people also slipped on a slope,” a police source said, adding that there were 70-80 police personnel at the event, apart from traffic police and fire brigades, while sevadars were managing it.
More than 121 people, mostly women and including seven children, were killed, and over 30 were injured in the stampede at Fulrai. Police have booked the organiser of the event, identified as Devprakash Madhukar, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 105 (culpable homicide), 110 (homicide), 126 (wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement), 223 (disobeying public servant order), 238 (disappearance of evidence). Narayan Sakar Hari is not named in the FIR, registered Tuesday night.
“The crowd, running wildly through fields filled with water and mud about three metres deep, was forcefully stopped by the organising committee and the sevaks with sticks, causing pressure of the massive crowd to increase, crushing women, children and men,” the FIR states. It adds that permission was granted for 80,000 people, but the crowd exceeded 2,50,000, with no adequate arrangements.
‘Organisers were busy hiding victims’ footwear’
Moreover, the UP Police have accused the organisers of not cooperating and providing assistance to the injured and in sending victims’ bodies to the hospital. Instead, police say, they were busy throwing footwear, clothes and other belongings of the victims into a field to hide the fact that there had been a stampede.
“The organisers did not disclose how many people would actually attend the event. Traffic management was also poor and the conditions in the permission granted were not followed,’ the FIR states.
It also says that after informing the higher authorities about the incident, the police sought additional forces and resources for relief and rescue operations.
A source in the UP Police said, “The organisers had invited a large number of people for the programme but did not disclose the correct figure to the police. Also, the conditions of permission for traffic control at the venue were not followed by them. It is because of their gross lapses that so many innocent people lost their lives.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also read: Hathras stampede witness: ‘Most of those killed were women, hardly any management by admin’