Omar Rashid 
The Hathras stampede, in which 121 persons were killed during a satsang (spiritual gathering) organised for a self-styled godman last July, could have involved a planned criminal conspiracy to defame the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government. This is one of the conclusions drawn by a three-member judicial commission led by retired Allahabad high court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava.
The 1680-page report – a copy of which was obtained by The Wire – stressed that the organisers of the satsang in Fulrai Mughal Garhi village in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, on July 2, 2024, tried to keep the activities at the event under wraps. They kept control of crowd management and did not allow the police or administration to interfere.
The organisers called people from different districts of UP as well as other states to manage the event and deployed them in various capacities, including sevadars and commanders, the probe pane noted. However, this information was not provided to the police or administration, and the background of such people was also not verified, the report stated.
Nobody was allowed to click photos or make videos. The media was not allowed to cover the program. All these details made it possible that the stampede incident could have involved a conspiracy to defame the government or to seek publicity, said the commission, which submitted its report to the government.
Also read: Hathras Stampede: UP Police Probe Takes Political Turn, Hints at SP’s Links with Organisers
“In such circumstances, the possibility of a criminal conspiracy being involved as per a well-planned scheme to bring such an event into public discussion, to defame the government or to obtain some other benefit cannot be ruled out. This fact is also strengthened by the fact that several sponsored affidavits and applications were collectively sent, mentioning misleading facts with an intention of derailing the direction of the investigation,” the commission said.
However, the probe panel also said it would be lawful if this criminal aspect was investigated in depth only by the Special Investigation Team formed by the state.
Was it an accident?
The stampede broke out at the end of a satsang organised by self-styled godman Narayan Sakaar Hari alias Bhole Baba. Before declaring himself a godman, Hari, born as Suraj Pal in a Dalit family in Etah, worked as a police constable. While 121 persons, including 112 women and seven children, were killed, 76 others were injured in the crush. The persons who died came from 18 districts of UP as well as from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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, who was not even booked for the incident.
The chief sevadar of the event, Dev Prakash Madhukar, an acolyte of Hari who previously worked as a junior engineer under MNREGA, was among the half-a-dozen organisers who were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to commit culpable homicide, among other crimes.
The possible conspiracy or “planned criminal act” angles behind the stampede was not only mandated by the terms of the judicial commission probe but was also suggested by Adityanath himself in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
“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 a day after the stampede last July while announcing the judicial probe.
His statement had come at a time he was drawing flak for failing to manage the event, which turned into one of the deadliest stampedes in the country in recent times.
Bhole Baba’s role
The report was silent on the direct role of Hari behind the stampede and instead laid the blame on the organisers of the event. The panel pulled up the organisers for failing to provide adequate facilities at the event and accused them of initially trying to conceal the stampede.
Also read: ‘He Is Not at Fault’: Bhole Baba’s Strongest Defenders Are the Hathras Stampede’s Victims
The stampede took place while or after Hari was leaving or left the venue of the satsang. An internal report of the Hathras administration soon after the incident suggested that it might have taken place due to the over-eagerness of the self-styled guru’s devotees, especially women, trying 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.
However, the commission could not reach a conclusion on whether devotees rushing to collect the dust of his feet happened, and if at all it happened, if it directly led to the stampede.
Delving further on the question of a possible conspiracy, the commission said that as far as the cause reason for the incident was concerned, based on oral, documentary and physical evidence, it prima facie appeared to be an accident. However, the commission noted several contradictions between the statements of the witnesses made before the panel and the affidavits submitted by them.
Hari himself gave contradictory statements. In an affidavit sent to the commission, Hari claimed that around 15-20 young men wearing shorts and t-shirts and donning dark scarves, sprayed a poisonous substance at the crowd as part of a conspiracy and causing people to panic. But in his deposition before the commission, he denied these claims. Witnesses who appeared before the judicial commission also denied these claims.
Complete chaos
The commission report said that while the organisers had sought permission for a crowd of 80,000, a crowd of around 2.5 lakh-3 lakh had gathered at the venue. Immediately after the satsang ended, such a large crowd was let out all at once, said the commission, adding that the people were not given any instructions to leave the venue in a controlled manner and nor were any arrangements made in this regard by the organisers.
Going into the causes and circumstances that led to the incident, the commission said there was no adequate arrangement of pandals at the site. This meant that the satsangis were spread far and wide outside the pandals in hot and humid conditions. There was no arrangement of fans inside and outside the pandals. Fans were installed only on the stage and there was no proper arrangement of drinking water, the commission found.
“Sitting in the humidity and the sun for several hours at the venue of the satsang and due to the pressure of the huge crowd, a situation of suffocation had developed. Due to this, as soon as the satsang ended, the crowd started leaving together for their destination, which created a situation of chaos,” the commission said.
The probe panel said that there was a slope of about 4-6 feet towards the field on the side of the highway. There was slush there but it was not made safe through barricading and no safety measures were taken to prevent the slippery conditions. The judicial commission revisited the sequence of events that day and concluded that the organisers had failed to plan and manage the satsang properly.
A path was created from a cut on the wrong side of the highway for Hari’s exit following the event. But gate no 2 of the site, from where the devotees had to exit, was located close to the cut. The sevadars of the event had formed a human chain to stop the crowd from both sides to ensure Hari’s smooth exit through the highway. While clearing the way for Hari, the crowd was pushed back, causing a build-up of pressure on both sides. As soon as Hari left the premises, the devotees were released. This caused a huge crowd to suddenly move towards their vehicles and put pressure on the highway.
“As soon as Bhole Baba left, the sevadars, assuming that their work was over, removed that arrangement. Suddenly, the crowd coming out of the satsang came on the highway, where it was slippery due to water being spilled from the tankers,” the commission said.
Due to the slope and the slush on the other side of the road, people kept falling. The crowd trampled upon those who had fallen. The panel, however, also said that it was “possible” that some of the devotees bent down to collect the dust of Baba’s feet and got caught in the rush of the crowd. The judicial commission said that the sevadars and the organisers first tried to hide the incident but realising its horror, they fled from the spot. The panel also said that there was no proper planning of the police and administration.
The “callous” police and administration left the entire management to the organisers of the satsang and could not immediately control the situation when it broke out, it said.