Police arrest 6 people after deadly stampede – DW – 07/04/2024

Six people have been arrested in connection with a stampede at a Hindu religious event in northern India earlier this week that left 121 people dead.

Police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh said Thursday that four men and two women detained were aides of preacher Suraj Pal Singh, also known as “Bhole Baba.”

The officers said that the six arrested persons were involved in organising a gathering that took place in Phulrai Mughal Garhi village in Hathras district on Tuesday.

“They worked mostly as volunteers,” Uttar Pradesh Inspector General of Police Shalabh Mathur told reporters on Thursday. “They were involved in crowd management and fund-raising.”

Authorities had given permission for 80,000 people to attend, but 250,000 eventually showed up and when panic broke out, six helpers fled, police said.

The bodies of the victims, including 112 women and seven children, have already been handed over to their families, officials said.

Guru “Bhole Baba” was hiding in a monastery

As for Baba himself, the self-proclaimed guru has not been seen since delivering his closing sermon on Tuesday, which led to a stampede. Local media reports say he has retreated to a nearby monastery, whose gates have been chained shut from inside by followers.

About 20 police officers stood guard outside the monastery on Thursday but did not enter the vast property, which is also surrounded by a five-metre-high wall.

“We will question him if need be,” Inspector General Mathur said, adding: “It is too early to say whether he played any role.”

Baba’s lawyer insists that his client – a former police officer – is not to blame for the disaster, is not in hiding and will cooperate with the police.

“There is no reason for him to hide; he has never hidden in his life,” Singh told the AFP news agency. “He believes in the law and follows the police orders. The investigation is ongoing and we will be involved in it.”

Singh also denied local media reports that the panic was caused by Baba’s call to devotees to touch his feet or collect dust touched by their feet.

The lawyer transfers responsibility

The lawyer, who said he would also represent six people arrested so far, placed responsibility for the panic on “anti-social elements” in the crowd who he said fled the scene.

“The police are doing their job, but the people they arrested are people whose family members were victims of the stampede,” he said. “Those who actually caused the stampede fled.”

Self-proclaimed religious preachers, gurus or “godmen” are common throughout India.

Baba was little known in India before Tuesday’s scare, but he has gained a legion of followers in his home state of Uttar Pradesh, most of whom are women, poor and marginalized.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition party, the Congress, plans to visit Hathras soon and “talk to the people concerned”, party officials said.

mf/ab (AFP, Reuters)