Hathras Stampede: Godman Bhole Baba not named in charge sheet against 11 accused
Additional superintendent of police Ashok Kumar Singh said that the charge sheet has been filed in the court against 11 named accused on Tuesday.
The name of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Bhole Baba is not mentioned in the 3200- page charge sheet filed on Tuesday against 11 accused, including two women sevadars (volunteers), in a Hathras court in connection with the death of 121 people in a stampede at Phulrai village under Sikandra Rau police station limits of Hathras district on July 2.
Surajpal also known as Narayan Sakar Hari was also not named in the FIR filed soon after the incident.
Those against whom the charge sheet has been filed are Dev Prakash Madhukar (the chief organiser of the event), Megh Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Manju Devi, Manju Yadav, Ram Ladhete, Upendra Singh, Sanju Kumar, Ram Prakash Shakya, Durvesh Kumar and Dalveer Singh. They were named in the FIR as well. Madhukar in the prime accused in both the FIR and the charge sheet.
Additional superintendent of police Ashok Kumar Singh said that the charge sheet has been filed in the court against 11 named accused on Tuesday.
The U.P. government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and a judicial commission to probe the stampede.
The copies of the charge sheet, filed in the court of the Hathras chief judicial magistrate, will be handed over to the accused on October 4, the next date of hearing in the case.
Hathras police have denied allegations of being “soft” towards Surajpal and said the investigation is still on.
“Investigation is an ongoing process and is on in this case too. It is too early to jump to any conclusion based on the charge sheet filed now,” said ASP Ashok Kumar Singh when asked if Hathras polce had given a clean chit to Bhole Baba.
Counsel for the accused AP Singh, a Delhi-based lawyer, said copies of the charge sheet are yet to be received by the accused for which the court has fixed October 4 as the date.
“Out of the 11 named and arrested in the case, two of the women accused, Manju Devi and Manju Yadav, have obtained interim bail from the Allahabad high court but only one is out of jail as, in the case of Manju Yadav, bail bonds are to be submitted,” AP Singh said.
Dev Prakash Madhukar, the chief organiser of the July 2 event, is the prime accused in the charge sheet just as he was named in the case registered at the Sikandra Rau police station in Hathras district the night after the incident.
The FIR was lodged against the chief organiser Madhukar, besides others, for allegedly misleading the administration by seeking permission for a gathering of 80,000 devotees, whereas over 2 lakh people turned up for the religious congregation at Phulrai village.
The FIR was lodged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 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 the public servant) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence).
The stampede took place during a satsang addressed by Surajpal, who hails from Bahadur Nagar village in Patiali tehsil of Kasganj district in U.P.
He surfaced in Bahadur Nagar village on July 17, 15 days after the stampede. He interacted with the media to express his grief over deaths at his “satsang”.
“What has to happen will happen and one who has come into the world will eventually leave,” he said on July 17 as he sought to absolve himself of responsibility and instead turned the blame on a “conspiracy” and “a poisonous spray”.
His lawyer AP Singh too had been stressing on conspiracy theory, alleging that there were 15 to 16 unidentified men who sprayed poisonous spray to allegedly cause stampede and moved away from spot as dead bodies piled.
A week after stampede, the SIT submitted its report to chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on July 9. In the initial action, six officials, including SDM, tehsildar, circle oficer and incharge Sikandra Rau police station were suspended. The SIT did not rule out a “big conspiracy” behind the stampede.
A separate judicial commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava is also probing the Hathras stampede case.