New Delhi:

The responsibility of the investigation into the Kolkata doctor’s rape-murder case, has been handed over to two of the CBI’s top women officers, who have handled a few such notorious cases earlier, with considerable success. The overall charge belongs Sampat Meena, a 1994 batch IPS officer from Jharkhand, who handled the Hathras rape-murder case and the Unnao rape case. With her is officer Seema Pahuja, who was also part of the Hathras investigation team.

Ms Meena, an Additional Director, is now in charge of a team of 25 officers, and will work in a supervisory capacity. The ground level investigation will be carried out by Ms Pahuja, who achieved a conviction is what was till then regarded as a blind case — the rape-murder of a Class 10 student in Himachal Pradesh.

The Gudiya case of 2017 had seared the hill state. The teen went missing while returning from school — the path went through a dense forest track where she was abducted. Her body was found two days later. She had been raped and strangled.

Anil Kumar, a woodcutter, was found guilty and sentenced to sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021.

In April 2018, the CBI had revealed how it cracked the case — using advanced DNA technology of percentage and lineage matching. After questioning over 1000 locals, they finally tested the DNA of over 250 people and found a match to forensic samples in the father of the accused. The son, who was out on bail and on the run, was later traced.

In the 2017 Unnao rape case too, the team had secured a conviction. BJP leader and local MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar — who was later expelled from the party — was given life term in jail for the gangrape of a 17-year-old Dalit girl.  

He was also found guilty of the death of the girl’s father in judicial custody, for which he is serving a 10-year jail term.

In the 2020 Hathras case, which also generated headlines across the country, sparking massive public outrage, a 19-year-old girl was allegedly assaulted and gang-raped by four men of the so-called upper caste. A fortnight later, she succumbed to her injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

What added to the public outrage was that her body was cremated by the Uttar Pradesh Police and the administration allegedly without the consent or the presence of her family.

Three of the four accused in the case have walked free. The fourth, Sandeep Thakur, has been convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and not of rape or murder. 

The court had based its judgment on the mismatch between the woman’s statement and the forensic evidence. The police had claimed there was no evidence of rape and the woman had died of a neck injury.

The state police were accused of massive lapses at every stage of the case — starting with the delay in filing of the First Information Report, then denial of rape and the hurried cremation of the body. In face of the public outrage, on October 3, 2020, the state government had suspended five police officers including the Superintendent of Police.

Hathras, UP:

Authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras have found out that a single user ID from a village was used to issue birth certificates for 814 individuals in multiple states in less than two years, prompting them to launch a probe.

Officials said Sinchawali Sani village has a population of roughly 1,100. However, over the last 19 months, a total of 814 birth certificates were issued using the village’s user ID for the Civil Registration System (CRS).

“These certificates have been issued not only for residents of Uttar Pradesh but also for individuals in other states, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka,” an official said.

“So far, it has been found that 780 certificates were issued in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Jharkhand, 12 in Bihar, four each in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, and one was issued in Karnataka. The number of such cases may increase as the investigation progresses,” the official said.

Gram Panchayat Officer Ishwar Chand, who is responsible for Sinchawali Sani, said he received access to the CRS portal on August 5.

“By then, 814 birth certificates were already issued through the ID. All of these certificates listed Sinchawali Sani as the place of birth,” Chand, who reported the matter to senior officials, said.

District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said a probe has been initiated.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Hathras Dr Manjeet Singh, who has been tasked with leading the investigation, said efforts are on to determine how the ID was leaked.

“The ID was recently assigned to the panchayat secretary of Sinchawali Sani. The inquiry will focus on uncovering the source of the leak and the extent of the misuse,” he added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The district official – a sub divisional magistrate – who permitted ‘godman’ Bhole Baba’s ‘prayer meet’ in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, at which a stampede killed 121 people – never inspected the venue, a team investigating the tragedy said in a report submitted to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The SIT report also said the event organisers and local administration, including the police, were negligent and held them responsible, stating they “failed to make adequate arrangements” for so large a crowd. Neither local officials nor the cops took the event “seriously”, the report said.

That the organisers – who have been held “primarily responsible” involved, or hired, individuals without police verification has been held up as an example of that negligence.

And, in a lapse of protocol, local police did not inform, as soon as they should have, their seniors of the stampede and the deaths, the report said. The probe team also echoed the Chief Minister in suggesting a “conspiracy” behind the tragedy, and has recommended a more detailed investigation.

The report is based on statements from 125 people – from eyewitnesses and survivors to police and district officials. In addition, news reports and photographs and video footage were also examined.

Hathras:

121 families have still been reeling under the impact of the stampede in Hathras on Tuesday where their loved ones died. But all of them have united in two demands – a swift probe, and action against Bhole Baba aka Suraj Pal Singh who organised the ‘satsang’ where the stampede occurred. After arresting several accused in the case, police have uncovered that Bhole Baba’s organisation had been getting funding from several political parties.

Hathras Superintendent of Police, Nipun Agarwal, today revealed that the main accused Devprakash Madhukar had recently been in contact with several political parties. This has prompted investigations into potential political conspiracies surrounding the incident. Madhukar was known to manage fundraising activities for events organized by the self-styled godman.

Mr Agarwal emphasized that financial transactions, money trails, and call records associated with Madhukar are currently under scrutiny. The police are also planning to seek his remand for further questioning.

An initial probe into the stampede had revealed that the godman had received permission to host an event for 80,000 people, but 2.5 lakh people were allowed to enter the venue. After the gathering, when the ‘godman’ was leaving, there was a rush among his followers to collect dust stirred up by his car’s tyres. According to officials, the godman’s private security guards started pushing his followers and some people fell and were trampled. In the chaos, many others fled towards the open field and slipped, and others ran over them. Many of those killed in the stampede were women and children.

According to eyewitnesses, only about 40 police personnel were on duty to ensure safety at this massive gathering and they were overwhelmed when the stampede broke out.

Madhukar was the ‘mukhya sevadar’ (chief of security) of the ‘satsang’ where the stampede occurred. He is the only accused named in the FIR lodged at Sikandra Rao police station in Hathras in connection with the incident, and Suraj Pal Singh hasn’t been named.

Initially, Madhukar’s lawyer, AP Singh, had asserted that his client had voluntarily surrendered to the Delhi police for medical treatment. However, Hathras police said they arrested Madhukar through technical surveillance, offering a reward of one lakh rupees for information leading to his arrest.

On Saturday afternoon, amidst tight security arrangements, Madhukar was brought to the Bagla Combined District Hospital in Hathras for a medical examination. He appeared with his face covered by a handkerchief and a stole wrapped around his head.

A three-member judicial commission team has arrived in Hathras to investigate administrative lapses that may have contributed to the tragedy. Statements from multiple officials have been recorded, and the team visited the site of the incident to gather further evidence.

Authorities plan to delve deeper into Madhukar’s association with Bhole Baba’s trust, scrutinizing funding sources and bank accounts. They intend to collaborate with other agencies to probe potential political links to the case. Should it be deemed necessary, a summons may also be issued to Bhole Baba for questioning.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation into Madhukar’s background and his role in the incident,” stated SP Nipun Agarwal.

“If any political is found to be associated with (Bhole Baba’s) organisation, we will take action against them,” he added.

Asked if the self-styled godman may be arrested, state police chief Prashant Kumar said, “Right now, everything is a matter of investigation. We do not want to influence the investigation by drawing any immediate conclusion. The ambit of the investigation is open. Action will be taken based on the facts that come to light during the investigation.”

Hathras:

Chotelal and his wife Manju Devi had gone to Hathras on Tuesday to attend ‘Bhole Baba’s’ satsang, just like they had been doing for the last 4-5 years. They also took their 6-year-old son hoping that he would learn something from the preachings. But the day ended on a tragic note, one that Chotelal had not imagined even in his scariest dreams – his wife and son died in a stampede at the end of the ‘Satsang’ that also claimed the lives of 119 other people.

The incident unfolded during a gathering of followers of self-styled godman Narayan Sakar Hari, also known as ‘Bhole Baba’. As devotees gathered to catch a glimpse of the godman leaving in his car, pandemonium erupted triggering a stampede. Witnesses recounted the horror as people scrambled to avoid the crush, with many falling victim to the tumultuous surge.

Chotelal spoke through tears of his devastating loss. “I was near the main gate when the stampede started. My wife fell into a pit filled with water as she tried to escape. Both my wife and son did not survive,” he lamented, his voice choked with grief.

For families like Chotelal’s, the aftermath has been a harrowing ordeal. Identifying loved ones among the deceased in various mortuaries across Hathras has become a painful ritual. The injured, scattered across multiple hospitals, have left relatives desperately searching for information and solace.

After #Hathras Tragedy, Grieving Families Left With Questions And Anger#GroundReport by @TanushkaDuttapic.twitter.com/xnt4SQxg38

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 5, 2024

The daughter-in-law of another victim, Premvati, described the chaos and trauma her family endured. “My mother-in-law was our pillar of strength,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “We have been associated with Bhole Baba for nearly a decade, attending his satsangs regularly. Now she is gone, and we are left questioning why this happened.”

Both families also have one more question, “If Bhole Baba can perform miracles, why did this happen and why hasn’t he brought his followers back to life.”

Survivors recount scenes of sheer terror and helplessness. One survivor, who narrowly escaped the stampede, recalled being trapped under a pile of people. “There was no space to move. I lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital,” she recounted, her face still bearing the marks of the ordeal. “We were calling out for help, but it was chaos all around.”

“When I Went To The Hospital…”: Man Who Lost Mother In #Hathras Tragedy Breaks Down pic.twitter.com/Yau44cYSnx

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 5, 2024

Amidst the tragedy, the political blame game has begun, overshadowing the voices of grief-stricken families who are struggling to come to terms with their losses. Calls for accountability and measures to prevent such disasters in the future are echoing through the grief-stricken community.

Announcing their first arrests in the stampede at the Hathras religious event which killed 121 people, the Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said they have taken six people into custody, but there was one notable omission – Bhole Baba aka Narayan Saakar Hari, the self-styled godman in whose honour the ‘satsang’ was organised.  

Pressed on the issue at a press conference, Inspector General of Police (Aligarh Range) Shalabh Mathur said the investigation has just begun and more arrests will be made based on the facts that emerge. He also clarified that the ‘godman’, whose original name is Suraj Pal, has not been questioned yet. 

Not ruling out taking Pal into custody, the officer said, “We will make arrests based on what the investigation reveals… We will question the baba if necessary, it is too early to say or comment whether he has a role. He has not been named in the FIR, which has held the organisers responsible. The permission was taken by the organising committee and members of the panel have been arrested.”

The permission was taken in the name of one Ved Prakash Madhukar, the officer said, adding that teams have been formed to trace him and a reward of Rs 1 lakh has been announced for information leading to his arrest. “If the role of other people is revealed during Madhukar’s questioning, we will take action accordingly,” Mr Mathur said.

Asked about the previous cases against the ‘godman’, who has allegedly also been accused of sexual assault, the officer said that, from what they know so far, Pal was a head constable with the UP police and had taken VRS (voluntary retirement from service) in 2000, when he was posted in Agra. 

“Soon after, an FIR was registered against him in Agra’s Shahganj police station and he was later acquitted. We are finding out if he has any more cases against him and we are taking the help of police in various states for this. 

Tuesday’s stampede, which led to the deaths of 121 people, including at least seven children, occurred at a ‘satsang’ in Phulrai village under Sikandra Rao police station limits in Hathras. Police said permission had been given for 80,000 people but 2.5 lakh had gathered for the event. 

When Pal was leaving in his car, a crowd rushed to collect the dust left in its wake, thinking of it as a blessing.

In a bid to control the crowd, the volunteers and others in charge of security from Pal’s organisation began pushing people back. Several devotees fell around an embankment and were crushed by the crowd. Amid the chaos, other attendees began running, triggering a stampede. 

Issuing a brief statement on Wednesday after maintaining silence since the stampede, Pal expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and said he will take legal action against “anti-social elements” that were allegedly behind the tragedy. 

Hathras:

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, there are more families who 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 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.

A stampede at a religious congregation on Tuesday in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh killed 121 people, most of them women, as devotees suffocated to death and bodies piled atop each other.

The stampede took place as the ‘satsang’ here ended. Some accounts said people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher’s car, triggering the stampede.

The victims were part of the crowd which had gathered near Phulrai village in the Sikandrarau area for the ‘satsang’ by religious preacher Baba Narayan Hari, also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba.

Around 2.5 lakh devotees had gathered in the Hathras district’s Phulrai village for the ‘satsang’, police said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Bhole Baba aka Narayan Saakar Hari is likely to be arrested soon after more than 100 people died in a stampede at his ‘satsang’ (religious congregation) in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras on Tuesday. The self-styled godman, whose original name is Suraj Pal, is believed to be at his ‘ashram’ in Mainpuri, about 100 km from the Phulrai village, where he held the event attended by thousands of devotees.

Many senior police officials have reached the Hathras stampede site, while others are at his ashram, the Ram Kutir Charitable Trust. Besides police personnel, an NDTV team at the ashram also saw his devotees gathering in large numbers.

In Hathras, a forensic unit and a dog squad are at the stampede site. Teams of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are also present.

At least 121 people, including over 100 women and seven children, were killed in the Hathras stampede. The Uttar Pradesh government said most of the people who died in the stampede have been identified.

A compensation of Rs 2 lakh each has been announced for the families of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims.

How Hathras Stampede Happened

Officials said the place where the Hathras stampede happened was too small to accommodate the crowd that had gathered there on Tuesday afternoon. A woman who attended the ‘satsang’ said the stampede broke out as the crowd began to leave.

After the ‘satsang’, devotees rushed to touch the feet of the self-styled guru, causing a big crowd build-up in a small area, officials said.

Devotees had come to the ‘satsang’ from various districts of Uttar Pradesh as well as neighboring states.

A high-level committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

The panel will be headed by the Additional Director General of Police, Agra, and the Aligarh Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said.

Case Against Hathras Satsang Organisers

A case has been filed against the ‘satsang organisers’ in Hathras, officials said.

According to the FIR, permission was granted for 80,000 people but more than 2.5 lakh devotees attended the event.

“Due to the uncontrollable crowd leaving the venue, devotees sitting on the ground were crushed. On the other side of the road, the crowd running in the water and mud-filled fields was forcibly stopped by the organizing committee with sticks, due to which the pressure of the crowd kept increasing and women, children, and men kept getting crushed,” the FIR said.

“The police and administrative officials present on the spot made every possible effort and sent the injured people to the hospital with the available resources. But no cooperation was given by the organizers,” the FIR added.

They have been charged under sections 105, 110, 126 (2), 223, and 238 of the new criminal code Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Godman Behind Hathras ‘Satsang’

Self-styled guru Narayan Saakar Hari has often claimed that he has worked with the Intelligence Bureau. He also told his devotees that he was inclined towards spirituality even when he was working and had resigned in the 1990s to pursue the spiritual path.

Born in Bahadur Nagari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district to a farmer, Nanne Lal, and Katori Devi, he completed his initial studies in the village.

He was reportedly a head constable with the Local Intelligence Unit of the UP police. He left his police job in 1999 and then changed his name to Narayan Saakar Hari.

He claims he began working for the Intelligence Bureau after college and turned towards spirituality during his time there.

Hathras Stampede Helpline Numbers

The Uttar Pradesh government has launched two helpline numbers — 05722227041 and 05722227042 — after the Hathras stampede incident.

Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, which made headlines  a few years ago for the horrific rape and murder of a Dalit woman, has been in the news again. This time for a stampede at a religious programme that has cost 116 lives. The tragedy is still unfolding and many of the devotees are desperately looking for lost family and friends.

Suresh, a survivor of the stampede, told reporters, “I came here with my family from Badaun. My brother’s wife is missing. We got to know that several people are missing. I made announcements in the mic but it did not help”.

Among those missing is a 15-year-old named Chaya, whose family came to participate in the satsang from Agra. “I have been looking all over for her. My daughter cannot speak. She can only cry,” said her anguished mother.

“There were six to seven people who came, my daughter is missing… No one told us where she was, they said she was here and there but I couldn’t find her. The police said they don’t know anything,” she added.

The police, in fact, have their hands full. Visuals from the local Community Health Centre showed bodies still being brought in buses and tempos.

The satsang was organised in the honour of a local guru, Bhole Baba aka Narayan Saakar Hari. After it ended, people were not allowed to leave until his car left, causing a huge build-up of people in a small area.

“Many people were on the road, who didn’t move when the satsang was over. A crowd had gathered and people were pushing each other. A wire broke and people were injured,” one of the eyewitnesses told reporters.

The high number of attendees is also a key factor. “While applying for permission, the organisers had said they were expecting around 80,000 people. But the number of attendees was much more,” said the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh.

In the stampede that followed, 116 people — 106 of them women and seven children – died. Many others are injured and doctors are struggling to help them. Around 35 bodies are yet to be identified — two of them are of children.

Yet another survivor said the stampede took place “as the road was uneven and people fell on each other”.

Hathras (UP):

Bodies lay scattered at a medical centre in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district on Tuesday as people milled around them, wiping away tears and consoling one another.

The heartbreaking scenes unfolded outside the district’s Sikandara Rao Trauma Centre, where victims, dead or unconscious, of the stampede that occurred at a ‘satsang’ in Phulrai village, were brought in ambulances, trucks and cars.

A woman sat crying among five or six bodies in a truck, urging people to help her get the body of her daughter out of the vehicle. A video clip showed a man and a woman lying lifeless in a different vehicle.

Many of the injured were seen lying near the entrance of the local government hospital surrounded by anxious relatives. Locals blamed the administration’s negligence for the tragedy.

As the hours went by, the official estimate of the fatalities jumped and the crowds outside the trauma centre and the mortuary swelled.

According to a senior district official, 116 people, mostly women, are believed killed in the stampede and several more injured.

“There are almost 100-200 casualties and there was only one doctor at the hospital. There was no facility for oxygen. Some are still breathing but there are no proper treatment facilities,” an agitated youth said outside the hospital.

Eyewitness Shakuntala Devi told PTI Videos that the stampede took place while people were leaving the venue at the end of the ‘satsang’. “Outside, there was a road built on a height over a drain. People fell atop each other,” she said.

The stampede apparently occurred due to overcrowding, the Sikandra Rao police station SHO said.

According to officials, the government has formed a team comprising the Agra additional director general of police and the divisional commissioner of Aligarh to probe the incident.

Speaking to media persons, District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said it was a private function for which the permission was granted by the sub-divisional magistrate. The local administration provided security outside the venue while the internal arrangement was to be looked after by the organisers, he added.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences to the families of those killed in the stampede and instructed officials to reach the accident site and carry out relief measures. He announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh ex gratia for the families of the dead and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.

The Uttar Pradesh government said an FIR will be registered against the organisers of the programme.

Adityanath also directed the district administration to arrange for proper treatment of those injured and immediately take them to hospitals. He wished them a speedy recovery. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)