Hathras stampede: Death toll rises to 121

NEW DELHI/Hathras: As the death toll in the Hathras stampede rose to 121 on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede and announced a judicial probe into the matter. The police filed an FIR against the organisers of the religious congregation, accusing them of hiding evidence and flouting conditions with 2.5 lakh people crammed into a venue in which only 80,000 were permitted.

A preliminary report by the sub divisional magistrate (SDM) has revealed that chaos was caused after the followers of the "godman" were pushed by his security and a "slippery slope" resulted in the stampede.

According to the UP relief commissioner, the number of people injured stands at 28. Only four of the 121 bodies are yet to be identified. Of the 116 who died on Tuesday, all were women, except for seven children and one man.

The family members of the victims gathered around hospitals, some looking for those missing, some were there to identify bodies and others were tending to the injured.

The doctors said asphyxia due to compression was the leading cause of death. The hospitals carried out four times the usual number of autopsies in a day in the aftermath of the stampede. A majority of the victims were women aged between 40 and 50 years.

As the administration and the medical fraternity coped with the crisis, families tried to piece together what had happened and count their losses.

Among them was 29-year-old Satyendra Yadav, who works as a driver, who lost his three-year-old son Rovin. He had reached the venue with his entire family, including his mother, wife and two children. The anguished father, who performed the last rites for his son on Tuesday night, said he doesn't remember much of what happened.

Kaavya and her elder brother, nine-year-old Ayush, took a bus with their family from Jaipur on Monday evening. It was to be their last. Ramlakhan, their uncle, said he hasn't told their father and 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 left Jaipur on Monday evening and they had reached the programme venue by 6 am," Ramlakhan told the media.

On Wednesday, Mr Adityanath met the victims and their kin, while assuring them that the accused will not be spared.

After meeting the victims, the UP CM held a discussion with the officials and said the possibility of a conspiracy cannot be ruled out. He also said the "sevadars" should have taken the victims to the hospital. Asserting that the government will ensure that such incidents do not recur, the chief minister said a standard operating procedure

might be put in place for religious congregations.

A judicial probe by a retired high court judge will be conducted into the incident. "If this is not an accident, then whose conspiracy is this? All of these will be probed. Retired officials of the police and civic administration will be part of the judicial inquiry and action will be taken against those found responsible," Mr Adityanath said.

The chief minister said that among those killed, six were from other states -- four from Haryana and one each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

When asked why the religious preacher has not been named in the FIR as an accused, Mr Adityanath said, "Prima facie, the case has been filed against those who had applied for permission for the event. Whoever is responsible for this will come under its purview."

A team consisting of ADG Agra and Aligarh divisional commissioner has been constituted to inquire into the cause of the incident.

Meanwhile, the Hathras SDM’s report stated, "A crowd of more than 2-lakh

people were present in the satsang pandal. The preacher reached the venue at about 12.30 pm and the programme went on for an hour… At about 1.40 pm, the godman came out of the pandal to go towards Etah via national highway 91. As soon as he left, his followers started running towards him for a 'darshan' and to collect soil from around his feet.

“The followers, mostly women and children, started applying the dust of Baba's feet to their foreheads while trying to get his darshan, touch his feet and take his blessings…The situation worsened when more people began running towards his vehicle. Then the personal security personnel and the sevadars started pushing and shoving to stop the crowd, due to which some people fell down," the report states, adding that it led to a panic and the crowd went out of control.

“Due to panic, the crowd ran towards the open field in front of the venue to get relief. On the other side of the road, most of the people slipped and fell due to the wet slope while descending from the road towards the field…those who fell could not get up again and were run over by those coming from behind,” the report mentioned.

While the state police lodged an FIR against the organisers. "Mukhya sevadar" Devprakash Madhukar and other organisers have been named in the FIR. The godman's name is not on the list of accused, though it is in the complaint.

Giving a sense of what took place, the FIR alleged that the organisers hid the actual number of devotees coming to 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 administration, saying they did whatever was possible with the available resources. According to the FIR, police and administration officials did everything possible and sent the injured from the available resources to hospitals, but the organisers and "sevadars" did not cooperate.

In a related development, two separate public interest litigations were also filed in the Supreme Court and the Allahabad high court in the stampede incident. The plea submitted before the apex court sought the constitution of a high-level committee under the supervision of a retired judge to investigate the stampede incident.