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One day after the mass panic with 121 deaths, high-ranking police officers reach the scene of the accident, Gurus Ashram in Mainpuri

Theo

New Delhi :

Self-proclaimed guru “Bhole Baba,” also known as Narayan Saakar Hari, is likely to be arrested soon after more than 100 people, most of them women, died in a stampede at his “satsang” (religious gathering) in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, India on Tuesday.

“Bhole Baba,” whose real name is Suraj Pal, is believed to be at his ashram in Mainpuri, about 100 kilometers from the village of Phulrai, where he held the doomed event attended by hundreds of thousands of devotees.

Many senior police officials are at the site of the stampede in Hathras, others at his ashram, the Ram Kutir Charitable Trust. Besides the police officers, an NDTV team also saw many of his followers at the ashram.

In Hathras, a forensic team and a dog squad visited the scene of the stampede. Teams from the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were also on site.

At least 121 people were killed in the stampede in Hathras, including over 100 women and seven children, and 28 others injured.

Compensation of 200,000 rupees was announced for the families of the victims and 50,000 rupees for the injured.

How the Hathras Stampede came about

According to officials, the site of the stampede in Hathras was too small to accommodate the crowd that gathered there on Tuesday afternoon.

When Narayan Saakar Hari left the satsang, his followers ran to collect the dust from the tyre tracks of his car, causing a stampede in which hundreds of people were trampled.

His helpers, known as “sevadars,” stopped the crowd from approaching the “godman,” and those rushing forward fell on top of each other, suffocating those standing below them, officials said.

ALSO READ | 2.5 lakh crowd, patchy preparation, a ‘dust rush’: What led to the stampede in Hathras

Devotees had come to the satsang from different districts of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states.

A high-level committee was set up to investigate the incident.

The committee will be chaired by the Deputy Director General of Police of Agra and the Commissioner of Aligarh, said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Proceedings against the organizers of the Hathras Satsang

Officials said a case has been filed against the organisers of the satsang in Hathras. According to the FIR, permission was granted for 80,000 people, but more than 250,000 devotees attended the event.

“The uncontrollable crowd leaving the venue was overpowered. Devotees sitting on the ground were crushed. On the other side of the road, the crowd running into the fields filled with water and mud was forcibly stopped by the organisers with sticks,” the FIR said.

“The police and local administration officials did their utmost and took the injured to hospital as far as they could. However, the organizers did not cooperate,” it said.

ALSO READ | Complaint filed against Hathras Satsang organisers, no mention of Bhole Baba

They were charged under sections 105 (intentional killing not amounting to murder), 110 (attempted killing), 126(2) (wrongful confinement), 223 (disobedience of order duly issued by a public servant) and 238 (disappearance of evidence) of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) penal code.

God behind Hathras ‘Satsang’

Narayan Saakar Hari has often claimed that he worked for the intelligence service. He also told his followers that he had an inclination towards spirituality while working and that he quit his job in the 1990s to pursue the spiritual path.

He was born in the village of Bahadur Nagari in the Etah district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to farmer Nanne Lal and Katori Devi and completed his early studies in the village.

He was reportedly a police superintendent in the Local Intelligence Unit of the Uttar Pradesh Police. He quit his police job in 1999 and changed his name to Narayan Saakar Hari.

He claims that he began working for the intelligence agency after college and turned to spirituality during his time there.

Hathras Stampede Helpline Numbers

The Uttar Pradesh government has set up two helpline numbers following the stampede in Hathras: 05722227041 and 05722227042.

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