New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh police said they have arrested six persons including two women linked to organising the satsang of Narayan Sakaar Hari alias Bhole Baba in Hathras where 121 persons were killed following a stampede on July 2 (Tuesday). However, the self-styled police constable-turned-godman, who was born as Suraj Pal in a Dalit family in Etah, is still out of the grip of the Uttar Pradesh government amid mounting pressure to act against him.
The Adityanath government has announced a judicial probe into the incident under retired Allahabad high court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava.
Meanwhile, police are questioning people linked to Hari and raiding his ashrams, including one major one in Mainpuri, to dig out more information about his past, criminal record as well as possible culpability in the incident.
Hari has not been named in the FIR pertaining to the case, which invoked several charges, prime among them culpable homicide. “It is too early to comment on his role. If needed, during the course of the investigation, we will question him too,” inspector general Aligarh, Shalabh Mathur, said at a press conference. Mathur added that the permission sought for the event in Fulrai Mughal Garhi village was not done in Hari’s name but by the members of the organising committee of the satsang.
Police have arrested six persons, identified as Ram Yadav (Mainpuri), Bhupendra Singh Yadav (Firozabad), Megh Singh (Hathras), Manju Yadav (Hathras), Mukesh Kumar (Hathras) and Manju Devi. They worked as sevadars (volunteers) as part of Hari’s group and organised several such events in the past, said Mathur. They were in-charge of managing the events, bringing crowds and collecting funds as part of the satsang committee, the officer added.
While investigation is ongoing at various levels, what’s been established as of now is that the stampede took place while or after Hari was leaving or left the venue of the satsang. An internal report of the administration suggested that the incident might have taken place due to the over-eagerness of the devotees, especially women, of the self-styled guru to seek his blessings and apply the dust of his feet on their foreheads and the attempts of the organisers to prevent them from doing so, following the event.
Devotees of Hari, speaking to The Wire, mostly blamed the administration for not taking sufficient steps to secure the venue and said the incident was caused by their lapse and that the godman was not at any fault.
During his visit to the site in Hathras on July 3, Adityanath said that, according to the accounts of injured eyewitnesses, the tragic incident occurred after the satsang event had ended and a group of women rushed forward to touch Hari, causing the chaos.
According to the government, the organisers of the event were guilty of underplaying the actual strength of the crowd. While they had sought permission for 80,000 people, the actual turnout was 2-2.5 lakh, which was a violation of the conditions on which the administration granted permission to the organisers, said the state police and district administration.
Also read: ‘He Is Not at Fault’: Bhole Baba’s Strongest Defenders Are the Hathras Stampede’s Victims
Addressing journalists on Thursday, officer Mathur said that the organisers of the event fled from the venue after the stampede and did not offer any cooperation to the administration or police in handling the situation. Mathur alleged that the organisers had their own security guards, dressed in black uniform and army fatigues, and they were responsible for managing the crowd. They were not even allowing the police to enter the premises or film videos of the event, he added.
The FIR in the case has named one accused, the chief sevadar of the event Devprakash Madhukar, and other unidentified organisers. A bounty of Rs 1 lakh has been declared on Madhukar, who is absconding. Police are preparing to secure a non-bailable warrant against him.
The Adityanath government, drawing flak for failing to manage the event, which turned into one of the deadliest stampedes in recent times, has not ruled out the possibility of a “conspiracy”.
Mathur said that the police were investigating if there was a “criminal conspiracy by a person or an organisation” behind the incident.
The official notification issued for the judicial probe also mandates the panel to look into the possibility of the incident being a “conspiracy” or a “planned criminal act”. The panel includes retired IPS officer Bhavesh Kumar Singh and retired IAS officer Hemant Rao.
The judicial probe will also look into whether the organisers of the event followed the conditions laid out by the administration while granting them permission for the satsang. The measures taken by the administration and the police for crowd management during the event would also be looked into. The panel is expected to submit its report to the government in two months.
“We cannot deny that such incidents are not mere accidents. If it was an accident, who is responsible? And if it was not an accident, then, who is behind the conspiracy,” Adityanath said on July 3 while announcing the judicial probe to get to the bottom of the incident.
While Hari stays out of police reach, officials are digging into his criminal record. According to Mathur, so far the police have confirmed only one criminal case against Hari, dating back to 2000. But he was acquitted in the case, Mathur confirmed.
Hari took voluntary retirement from the police in 2000 when he was serving as a head constable in Agra. Since he has devotees in other states as well, the police are trying to unearth details of other possible criminal complaints against him or his associates.
The case against Hari was lodged in Shahganj, Agra, under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act and another section of the Indian Penal Code. His wife, and four others, were also named in the FIR. Hari was accused of trying to “resurrect” a teenage girl who had died in Agra through “magical powers.” Hari, then known as Suraj Pal, had allegedly reached the cremation ground where the teenager’s body had been taken for the last rites and tried to stop her family from cremating her.
Supreme Court lawyer A.P. Singh claimed that he had been authorised by Hari to pursue the stampede matter legally on his behalf. Speaking for Hari, Singh said that the godman had dismissed all the allegations against him as baseless. “He is being targeted because he is a promoter of Sanatan Dharma,” said Singh.
The lawyer, who is known for legally defending the men accused of raping and murdering a woman on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 as well as the accused persons in the Hathras rape and murder of a Dalit woman in 2020, said Hari was willing to cooperate in all kinds of investigation.
In an English-written note shared under his name, Hari claimed that “anti-social elements” caused the stampede after he had left the venue. Defending Hari, Singh said it was not true that the stampede was caused after the crowd rushed towards the godman to touch his feet.
“Sakaal Hari has no such tradition of touching the feet. He does not have any system of donation. He doesn’t keep a mobile phone, has no social sites or Youtube channel or Whatsapp, Facebook or Instagram accounts. He has lived a life of honesty,” said Singh.
The persons who died came from 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh as well as from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Out of the 121 casualties, 112 were women. Two men and seven children were also killed. Most of the persons killed belonged to Hathras (19), Agra (18), Aligarh (17), Mathura (11), Kasganj (10), Etah (10) and Budaun (6), indicating the popularity of the godman.
