The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has accused the Government of Uttar Pradesh of hiding the actual number of fatalities in the recent Maha Kumbh Stampede.
“The Uttar Pradesh State unit of the PUCL found in its preliminary investigation that the Government of Uttar Pradesh have used several devices to hide the actual number of fatalities. Dead bodies were sent to two different postmortem centers and the place and date of their retrieval has been manipulated in some cases,” said the PUCL in a statement.
The statement added that at the Swaroop Rani Hospital, PUCL members saw photos of unidentified dead persons stuck in the register.
“From the condition of the bodies, it was clear that many of them had been crushed. But a notice recently put up has prohibited any taking of photographs,” said the statement.
“The People’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) expresses deep anguish and mourns the death of many pilgrims at the incidents of stampede that occurred in the early hours of 29th January 2025 at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh during the Maha Kumbh Mela, and demands transparency and accountability from the Government of Uttar Pradesh on why it has abysmally failed to discharge its most basic constitutional responsibility, which is to protect the right to life of all persons,” said PUCl.
The PUCL demanded that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chaired by the Prime Minister, make public their assessment of causes of the stampede.