Missing Bhole Baba not named in 1st FIR as Hathras toll hits 121
UP Police file FIR against organizers of religious congregation in Hathras stampede that killed 121, but not against self-styled godman "Bhole Baba".
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday filed a first information report (FIR) against the organisers of a religious congregation in Hathras, where a stampede killed 121 people, but did not name the self-styled godman “Bhole Baba”, whom hundreds of thousands flocked to see on Tuesday as the deadly tragedy, which stunned the nation and exposed a raft of administrative failures, unfolded.
Five more people succumbed on Wednesday, pushing the toll up from 116 the previous day, even as roughly two dozen more remained critical, said officials.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced a judicial investigation into the stampede – the deadliest in India since 2008 – to be helmed by a retired high court judge, and said the state government would consider laying out standard operating protocols for gatherings of such magnitude.
The tragedy took place at a “satsang” organised by Bhole Baba, a 65-year-old-man originally named Suraj Pal, who remains at large, said UP Police.
“District officials have been asked to trace him, even though he is not named in the FIR,” said an officer.
Around 250,000 people attended the event, said local officials, survivors and residents, adding that the venue was a partially covered field in Phulari Mughal Garhi, a village roughly 200km from Delhi.
The stampede occurred minutes after the programme ended. As Pal began to leave the venue around 1.40pm on Wednesday, a large mass of devotees started to run towards his convoy, to gather dust from the ground he had touched (a practice they call “Raj”). However, the preacher’s guards stopped people as they rushed toward him, with dozens falling over each other at this point on the sloping ground.
The tragedy was worsened by a string of other factors -- the wet ground turned the field into a muddy trap, humid weather caused many to faint during the melee, and only two medical facilities with limited resources were available to tend to what was a sudden flood of people who had been crushed in the crowd.
The accident underlined a string of lapses by the organisers and officials, with the “satsang” crammed well beyond the allotted permission of 80,000, as the absence of properly defined exits or barricading compounded the scale of the chaos.
The FIR, filed on the complaint of sub-inspector Brijesh Pandey, named Devdas Madhukar, the head volunteer (sevadar) of Pal’s organisation and unnamed organisers of the religious congregation. All the suspects were at large, said police.
It was registered under 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), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The FIR also blamed the volunteers (sevadars) for not cooperating with authorities after the stampede, throwing devotees’ belongings into fields and removing the tent, all in a bid “to wipe out evidence”.
A report filed by the subdivisional magistrate (SDM) Ravindra Kumar Singhof the Sikandra Rau division (which Hathras falls under), who had given permission for the event, corroborated the contents of the FIR.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer involved in the probe said they were looking for Pal, who was not to be found at his sprawling farmhouse in Mainpuri, even as a large police contingent remained deployed there since Tuesday.
Victims’ families, however, refused to blame Pal.Kailash Chand, who lost his daughter Roshni to the stampede, was one of them. “Baba teaches us that everything happens for a reason, even if we can’t understand it,” he said. “Roshni’s soul is now with the divine, and we must continue our spiritual journey.”
Adityanath, after meeting with Hathras police officers, said the list of suspects in the FIR could swell as the investigation progresses, assuring that “no guilty person will be spared”.
A woman constable on duty at the congregation also detailed the sequence of events before the chief minister at Hathras district hospital on Wednesday.
The CM said the judicial probe would ascertain if the stampede was “a conspiracy or just an accident”.
“We will ensure such incidents do not recur,” said Adityanath.
He also met the injured at the Hathras district hospital, of whom 115 are from Uttar Pradesh, four from Haryana, and one each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Several global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, offered their condolences over the tragedy.
“Kindly accept the most sincere condolences over the tragic accident in Uttar Pradesh,” Putin told President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a message, according to the X handle of the Russian Embassy in India.
In a statement, Kishida said, “On behalf of the Government of Japan, I pray for the souls of the victims and extend my deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I would also like to express my sincere wishes for the swift recovery of the injured.”
Meanwhile, Opposition leaders pulled up the local administration and state government, demanding accountability.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday over the stampede, saying such incidents keep happening but accountability is not fixed by the government, which instead is only interested in “whitewashing” these matters.
In a post in Hindi on X, she said, “Three times more crowd than permitted, no administration on the spot, no crowd management arrangements, no way to escape from the scorching heat, no medical team, no ambulance after the incident, no one for help, no doctors and facilities in the hospital ... such a long list of negligence but no one is accountable. Who is responsible for the tragic incident that happened in Hathras?”
A petition was also filed in the Supreme Court seeking the submission of a report before the court on the stampede and legal action against the accused, authorities and officials for their negligent conduct.