Lucknow: A judicial commission investigating the death of nearly 120 people during a religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district last year shied away from blaming controversial godman Suraj Pal or Bhole Baba for the tragedy but pointed to “serious lapses” by the police, administration and organisers, and hinted at the possibility of a conspiracy to “defame” the state government.
The 1,670 page report tabled by the state government in the assembly on Wednesday rejected the theory – first floated by Pal’s lawyers – that unidentified men spraying toxic gas led to the stampede.
It said that the crowd at the venue was at least three times the sanctioned number (estimated number 80,000) but refused to name any individual or officer as responsible. It also refused to take a stand on the allegation of the police that Pal’s call to his devotees to collect dust touched by his feet led to the rush that triggered the stampede.
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“It’s unlikely that some people sprayed toxic spray which caused the stampede-like situation. The statements of witnesses did not match with each other and it seemed like they all were instructed in a way to tell this story just to divert the investigation…The language used in affidavits is also quite similar. A similar affidavit was also given by the counsel of Bhole Baba, which he denied during investigation,” said the report, written in Hindi.
The commission questioned the seriousness of officers in granting permission for such a big programme.
“No one went for inspection on the spot before granting permission. The process of submitting the application to grant the request for permission was completed in a day. It is evident that no police officer or administrative officer showed any seriousness with regard to granting permission for the programme…The permission was granted after doing just the paperwork,” it said.
The commission — led by former Allahabad high court judge, justice Brajesh Kumar Srivastava, and comprising retired IAS officer Hemant Rao and retired IPS officer Bhavesh Kumar Singh – also recommended that the government should enact a law providing for stringent punishment and heavy penalties to effectively check “bhram” (delusion), “mayajaal” (illusion), “andhvishwas” (superstition) and “kuritiyan” (evil practices).
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“The possibility of criminal conspiracy being involved as per a well-planned scheme to bring such an event into public discussion, to defame the government or to get some other benefit cannot be ruled out and the said fact is also strengthened by the fact that misleading facts have been presented in all the sponsored affidavits/applications with the intention of deviating the direction of the investigation, but it would be legal if this criminal aspect is investigated in depth by the SIT investigating the crime,” the report said.
Reacting to report, BJP said that the lapses on the part of the local administration were evident from the beginning. “Now, the commission has also pointed out lapses on the part of the local police and district administration. Now, the government will study the report and act against the guilty accordingly’, BJP spokesman HC Srivastava said.
Also read | Call to collect dust touched by Bhole Baba led to Hathras stampede
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand has said that BJP government is always busy finding conspiracy angle instead of taking action against administrative failures, be it Hathras or Mahakukbh. “Whatever happened in Hathras was unfortunate and was a result of administrative failure but instead of taking action against those responsible the BJP government is more keen on finding a conspiracy angle somehow. Be it the administrative failure in Hathras or Prayagraj Mahakumbh, accountability wasn’t fixed and no action was taken against responsible officials,” said SP Spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand.
On July 3, 2024, at least 116 people, most of them women and children, were killed in a stampede as they attempted to leave a haphazardly organised religious gathering in Hathras, marking the deadliest such incident in India since 2008.
The tragedy took place at a “satsang” organised by 65-year-old Bhole Baba, originally named Suraj Pal from Aligarh’s Kasganj area who was once a constable in the Uttar Pradesh Police. At least 250,000 people were estimated to have been at the venue, a partially covered field in Phulari Mughal Garhi, a village roughly 200km from Delhi, and far from any major centre with medical facilities to handle a mass casualty event.
The stampede occurred after the programme when the preacher was leaving the stage. The chaos near the stage triggered a larger panic, prompting the crowd of tens of thousands to funnel into a narrow exit, where many fell and were trampled over. Survivors and eyewitnesses said several other factors contributed to the tragedy: the wet ground turned the field into a muddy trap, hot and humid weather caused many to faint out of exhaustion 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 crowding.
On July 2, 2024,the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a special investigation team and a judicial commission to probe into the stampede. The SIT is submitted its report on July 09, 2024.
But the godman was not mentioned as accused in the first information report lodged at Sikandra Rau police station in Hathras on July 2. His name was also missing in the 3,200 pages long charge sheet filed by the police on October 01,2024 before a Hathras court against 11 accused, including two women sevadarS, named in the FIR.
The commission’s report pointed out serious lapses in police and administrative arrangements for crowd management, observing that the organisers stopped the police and administration from performing their duties.
It observed that the police, administration and several witnesses said that the “running of the crowd to take charan raj to solve all the problems following an announcement in this regard” led to the incident. But it shied away from nailing the godman for this lapse.
“Bhole Baba himself and his many followers denied that there was any tradition for taking the ‘charan raj’. Some followers, who have been attending the satsang for a long time, however, stated that new followers take the ‘charan raj’… A video examined by the commission does not establish this. It however cannot be ruled out that the followers used to take the ‘charan raj. It also cannot be said that the incident took place because the followers wanted to take charan raj,” the report said.
The commission said that the organisers had estimated a crowd of 80,000 but the actual gathering was between 250,000 and 300,000 strong. It said the organisers did not provide minimum facilities for the followers and pointed out that the media was not allowed to cover the programme and no photography or videography was allowed.