HATHRAS (UP): The death toll in the stampede that broke out in a satsang rose to 121 on Wednesday and police filed an FIR against the organisers, accusing them of hiding evidence and flouting conditions with 2.5 lakh people crammed into a venue in which only 80,000 were permitted.
A day after the stampede in Phulrai village in UP’s Hathras at a congregation by religious preacher Bhole Baba snuffed out the lives of their loved ones, stunned families tried to come to terms with their loss – dazed at how an afternoon out could have ended in such tragedy. Crowds gathered around hospitals, some looking for those missing, some there to identify bodies and others tending to the injured.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede — which took place at around 3.30 pm when the Baba was leaving the venue with some accounts saying people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher’s car.
“The chief minister held a meeting with officials in the circuit house and met the injured in district hospitals,” a government official said.
A team consisting of ADG Agra and Aligarh Divisional Commissioner has been constituted to inquire into the cause of the incident. The report is likely to be submitted on Wednesday.
According to the Office of the Relief Commissioner, the number of people injured stands at 28. Only four of the 121 bodies remained to be identified. Of the 116 who died on Tuesday, all were women, except for seven children and one man.
A pile of slippers at the spot were mute testimony to the tragedy that had befallen so many.
Where was Baba Narayan Hari, also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, the preacher who conducted the ‘satsang’? That was the question as he remained missing and police launched a search for him.
While the state police lodged an FIR against the organisers, his name is not in the list of accused though it is there in the complaint.
Giving a sense of what took place, the FIR alleged that the organisers hid the actual number of devotees coming to the ‘satsang’ while seeking permission, did not cooperate in traffic management and hid evidence after the incident.
The FIR gave a clean chit to the police and administration, saying they did whatever possible from the available resources.
The FIR has been 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 official said.
The organisers sought permission for about 80,000 people for which police and administration made arrangements. However, over 2.5 lakh people gathered, it said.
The Baba, who was the main speaker of the satsang, came out at about 2 pm in his vehicle and devotees started collecting mud from there. Due to the heavy rush of devotees, those lying down (for taking the mud) started getting trampled.
Some running away from the spot were stopped by the Baba’s stick-wielding helpers standing on the other side of a three-feet deep field filled with water and slush due to which women, children and men got crushed, it said.
According to the FIR, 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.
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
“Asphyxia due to compression was found to be the cause of death in almost all the cases,” Etah’s Additional Chief Medical Officer Dr Ram Mohan Tiwari told PTI. A majority of the victims were women in the 40-50 age group.
Grieving Families
As the administration and the medical fraternity coped with the crisis, families tried to piece together what had happened and count their losses.
Satyendra Yadav was walking towards his vehicle after the satsang when his wife called — their three-year-old son Chhota had died in the stampede that had broken out moments earlier.
The 29-year-old driver from Delhi had reached here with his family, including his mother and two sisters-in-law. Just before the programme ended, Yadav, along with his mother and elder son, Mayank (4), started walking towards his vehicle, a three-wheeler loader.
“As we reached my vehicle, I got a call from my wife…she said, ‘Pilua thaane aa jaao, Chhota khatam ho gayaa hai‘ (Come to the Pilua police station, Chhota is no more),” Yadav told PTI.
The three-year-old son of Yadav, Rovin, was affectionately called as Chhota by his family. He was among the 121 people, who died in the stampede here on Tuesday.
Like Rovin, more families lost their children in the tragic incident.
For the brother-sister duo Kaavya (3) and Ayush (9), the bus journey from Jaipur, Rajasthan, on Monday evening to the event venue here proved to be their last.
Both the grieving families said they never imagined that such an incident would take place at a religious gathering.
Yadav said he, along with his wife, their two sons and his wife’s two sisters, had left Delhi on Monday night at around 11 pm and reached here by 5.30 am (on Tuesday). His mother had reached the event from their village in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, separately.
“It is indeed very devastating for me and my family,” Yadav, who performed the last rites of his son in his village on Tuesday night, said.
Recalling some of the scenes from the stampede, he said, “I do not remember anything about the commotion that took place. Later on, I saw some people carrying a woman somewhere. I thought that she might have fainted (due to the weather), and hence she would be given medical treatment. I had not seriously thought about the incident.”
“Then, I got a call from my wife. My voice was reaching her, but I could not hear what she was saying. So, I told her to come to the place where I had parked my vehicle,” he said.
Sometime later, when he got another call from her, she, along with her sisters, was at the Pilua police station (in Etah) and informed him about Rovin’s death, Yadav said, adding that he then informed his brother, who subsequently informed their father.
Later, a large number of people from Yadav’s village, including the village pradhan, reached the spot, he said.
Meanwhile, Ramlakhan, who was accompanying his brother-in-law and the father of the deceased siblings — Kaavya and Ayush — Anad, to Shahjahanpur in a bus, said that he has yet not given the tragic news to him, fearing it would shock him.
“I came to know about the tragic incident around 5 pm. They (Kaavya and Ayush) had gone to the satsang along with my wife, who is their paternal aunt. We belong to Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, but I work in Jaipur. The children, along with other family members, had left Jaipur on Monday evening and they had reached the programme venue by 6 am,” Ramlakhan said.
“I was very attached to the children and on Sunday, I had spoken to them. This is a very tragic incident and a sad moment for our family. We had never expected that such an incident would take place. The children and family members had attended satsang programmes on earlier occasions as well,” he said, adding that he came to know that there was overcrowding at the venue.
“The father of Ayush and Kaavya is with me (in the bus). I have not told him about the tragic news so that he does not get a shock,” Ramlakhan said.
He said that he spoke to his wife Rama between 5 pm and 6 pm on Tuesday, and it was the police personnel who facilitated the conversation as she does not have a mobile phone.
SC asked to Probe
A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking the appointment of a five-member expert committee under the supervision of a retired apex court judge to probe the Hathras stampede incident.
The plea, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, has also sought a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report on the July 2 incident and to initiate legal action against the authorities, officials and others for their negligent conduct.
The petition has sought a direction to the states to submit the status of medical facilities available from the block/Tehsil to the district level to deal with incidents of stampede.
It has also sought the apex court’s direction to the states to issue guidelines to prevent stampede or other incidents for the safety of the public in organising any religious or other events where a large number of people gather.
