Hathras (UP), The death toll in the stampede that broke out at a 'satsang' here rose to 121 on Wednesday and the police lodged an FIR against the organisers, accusing them of hiding evidence and disobeying conditions with 2.5 lakh people crowded in one place. in which only 80,000 were allowed.
A day after the Phulrai village stampede at a congregation of religious preacher Bhole Baba claimed the lives of loved ones, stunned families tried to come to terms with their loss, stunned at how an afternoon of partying could have ended in such a tragedy. . Crowds gathered around hospitals, some searching for the missing, others identifying the bodies and others tending to the wounded.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede, which took place around 3.30 pm, as Baba was leaving the scene. Some accounts said people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher's car. "The prime minister met officials at the circuit and received the injured at district hospitals," a government official said.
A team comprising ADG Agra and Divisional Commissioner Aligarh has been constituted to investigate the cause of the incident. The report is likely to be presented on Wednesday.
According to the Office of the Relief Commissioner, the number of injured is 28. Only four of the 121 bodies remain to be identified. Of the 116 who died on Tuesday, all were women, except seven children and one man.
A pile of slippers at the scene was a mute testimony to the tragedy that had befallen so many.
Where was Baba Narayan Hari, also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, the preacher who led the satsang? That was the question since he was still missing and the police began a search. Although the state police filed an FIR against the organizers, his name does not appear in the list of accused, although it does appear in the complaint.
To give an idea of what happened, the FIR alleged that the organizers concealed the actual number of devotees who attended the 'satsang' while seeking permission, did not cooperate in traffic management and hid evidence after the incident.
The FIR apparently gave a clean chit to the police and the administration, saying they did their best with the available resources. 'Mukhya sevadar' Devprakash Madhukar and other organizers were named in the first information report (FIR) lodged in the Sikandar Rau police station on Tuesday night, a senior official said.
The FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant ), 238 (causing the disappearance of evidence), the official said.
The organizers asked for permission for about 80,000 people, for which the police and administration made arrangements. However, more than 2.5 lakh people gathered, he said. Baba, who was the main satsang speaker, left around 2 pm in his vehicle and devotees started collecting mud from there. Due to the great rush of devotees, those who were lying down (for taking up the mud) began to be trampled.
Some of those fleeing the scene were stopped by Baba's stick-wielding helpers who were on the other side of a meter-deep field filled with water and mud that crushed women, children and men, he said.
According to the FIR, the police and administration officials tried their best and sent the injured with available resources to hospitals, but the organizers and 'sevadars' did not cooperate. The organizers also tried to hide the real number of people who attended the event by hiding evidence and throwing slippers and other belongings of the devotees in nearby fields, the FIR alleged.
Compression asphyxiation was the main cause of death, said a senior doctor at an Etah hospital. The hospital performed four times the usual number of autopsies in a day after the stampede, he said.
Twenty-seven bodies were shifted to the district hospital mortuary. "Asphyxiation due to compression was found to be the cause of death in almost all the cases," said Dr Ram Mohan Tiwari, additional medical director of Etah. Most of the victims were women between 40 and 50 years old.
As the administration and the medical fraternity coped with the crisis, families tried to piece together what had happened and recount their losses.
Among them was Satyendra Yadav, 29, who works as a driver in Delhi, and lost his three-year-old son Rovin, affectionately called Chhota. He had come here with his entire family, including his mother, his wife and his two children. The distraught father, who performed Chhota's last rites on Tuesday night, said he did not He remembers a lot of what happened.
Chhota was not the only three-year-old boy killed.
Kaavya and his elder brother Ayush, nine, took a bus with their family from Jaipur on Monday night. It would be the last. Ramlakhan, his uncle, said he had not told his father or his brother Anad.
"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. The children, along with other family members, had abandoned Jaipur on Monday afternoon and had reached the program venue at 6 am," Ramlakhan said.
"Only the poor suffer this fate, not the rich," is how Rajkumari Devi of Unnao put it. Sitting in an ambulance next to the body of her sister-in-law, Ruby said she is worried about Ruby's five-year-old son who is missing.
"We haven't found him yet. More members of our family are on their way to Hathras," she said, sitting outside the government hospital mortuary here, about 400 kilometers from her home.
When she was asked if she had any demands from the government, Rajkumari said: "What do we say now? There is nothing (to ask for)."
A day after the Phulrai village stampede at a congregation of religious preacher Bhole Baba claimed the lives of loved ones, stunned families tried to come to terms with their loss, stunned at how an afternoon of partying could have ended in such a tragedy. . Crowds gathered around hospitals, some searching for the missing, others identifying the bodies and others tending to the wounded.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede, which took place around 3.30 pm, as Baba was leaving the scene. Some accounts said people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher's car. "The prime minister met officials at the circuit and received the injured at district hospitals," a government official said.
A team comprising ADG Agra and Divisional Commissioner Aligarh has been constituted to investigate the cause of the incident. The report is likely to be presented on Wednesday.
According to the Office of the Relief Commissioner, the number of injured is 28. Only four of the 121 bodies remain to be identified. Of the 116 who died on Tuesday, all were women, except seven children and one man.
A pile of slippers at the scene was a mute testimony to the tragedy that had befallen so many.
Where was Baba Narayan Hari, also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, the preacher who led the satsang? That was the question since he was still missing and the police began a search. Although the state police filed an FIR against the organizers, his name does not appear in the list of accused, although it does appear in the complaint.
To give an idea of what happened, the FIR alleged that the organizers concealed the actual number of devotees who attended the 'satsang' while seeking permission, did not cooperate in traffic management and hid evidence after the incident.
The FIR apparently gave a clean chit to the police and the administration, saying they did their best with the available resources. 'Mukhya sevadar' Devprakash Madhukar and other organizers were named in the first information report (FIR) lodged in the Sikandar Rau police station on Tuesday night, a senior official said.
The FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant ), 238 (causing the disappearance of evidence), the official said.
The organizers asked for permission for about 80,000 people, for which the police and administration made arrangements. However, more than 2.5 lakh people gathered, he said. Baba, who was the main satsang speaker, left around 2 pm in his vehicle and devotees started collecting mud from there. Due to the great rush of devotees, those who were lying down (for taking up the mud) began to be trampled.
Some of those fleeing the scene were stopped by Baba's stick-wielding helpers who were on the other side of a meter-deep field filled with water and mud that crushed women, children and men, he said.
According to the FIR, the police and administration officials tried their best and sent the injured with available resources to hospitals, but the organizers and 'sevadars' did not cooperate. The organizers also tried to hide the real number of people who attended the event by hiding evidence and throwing slippers and other belongings of the devotees in nearby fields, the FIR alleged.
Compression asphyxiation was the main cause of death, said a senior doctor at an Etah hospital. The hospital performed four times the usual number of autopsies in a day after the stampede, he said.
Twenty-seven bodies were shifted to the district hospital mortuary. "Asphyxiation due to compression was found to be the cause of death in almost all the cases," said Dr Ram Mohan Tiwari, additional medical director of Etah. Most of the victims were women between 40 and 50 years old.
As the administration and the medical fraternity coped with the crisis, families tried to piece together what had happened and recount their losses.
Among them was Satyendra Yadav, 29, who works as a driver in Delhi, and lost his three-year-old son Rovin, affectionately called Chhota. He had come here with his entire family, including his mother, his wife and his two children. The distraught father, who performed Chhota's last rites on Tuesday night, said he did not He remembers a lot of what happened.
Chhota was not the only three-year-old boy killed.
Kaavya and his elder brother Ayush, nine, took a bus with their family from Jaipur on Monday night. It would be the last. Ramlakhan, his uncle, said he had not told his father or his brother Anad.
"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. The children, along with other family members, had abandoned Jaipur on Monday afternoon and had reached the program venue at 6 am," Ramlakhan said.
"Only the poor suffer this fate, not the rich," is how Rajkumari Devi of Unnao put it. Sitting in an ambulance next to the body of her sister-in-law, Ruby said she is worried about Ruby's five-year-old son who is missing.
"We haven't found him yet. More members of our family are on their way to Hathras," she said, sitting outside the government hospital mortuary here, about 400 kilometers from her home.
When she was asked if she had any demands from the government, Rajkumari said: "What do we say now? There is nothing (to ask for)."
