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11 Hathras stampede accused appear before court, next hearing on Aug 24
An FIR was lodged against Madhukar, the chief organiser of the event where the stampede took place, for misleading the administration by seeking permission for a gathering of 80,000 when over two lakh people had turned up for the spiritual congregation at Phulrai village
Eleven people arrested in connection with a case concerning the Hathras stampede on July 2 appeared before the court of chief judicial magistrate in Hathras on Monday.
Dev Prakash Madhukar, an accused named in the case registered at Sikandra Rau police station of Hathras district, and others appeared before the court virtually from the district jail at Aligarh. The court has fixed August 24 as the next date of hearing in the case.
An FIR was lodged against Madhukar, the chief organiser of the event where the stampede took place, for misleading the administration by seeking permission for a gathering of 80,000 when over two lakh people had turned up for the spiritual congregation at Phulrai village.
At least 121 people, 98 of whom were women, were killed in the July 2 stampede, which took place during a satsang (religious congregation) that was addressed by self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari. He hails from Bahadur Nagar village in Patiali tehsil of Kasganj district, where he was spotted for the first time on July 17 since the incident.
Surajpal’s lawyer AP Singh had been stressing on a conspiracy theory, alleging that there were 15 to 16 unidentified men who sprayed a poisonous substance to cause a stampede.
After the hearing on Monday, Singh reasserted his conspiracy theory and stated that about 1,000 affidavits signed and sworn by eyewitnesses, injured and relatives of the deceased, who alleged that they saw such antisocial elements indulging in spraying the poisonous substance, had been submitted to a judicial commission appointed to probe the stampede and Hathras police.
“We are submitting such evidence to the judicial commission appointed to probe the matter. The superintendent of police (SP) of Hathras too has been appraised of all this and we have sought investigation by police about our stand,” Singh told HT during a telephonic conversation on Monday.
It may be noted that Surajpal was not mentioned as accused in the FIR lodged at Sikandra Rau police station of Hathras.
A week after the stampede, the SIT submitted its report to chief minister Yogi Adityanath on July 9. As part of the initial action, six officials, including a SDM, tehsildar, circle officer and the in-charge of Sikandra Rau police station were suspended.
Also, the SIT did not rule out the possibility of a “big conspiracy” behind the stampede.
A judicial commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava is also probing the Hathras stampede case.
