The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday arrested Devprakash Madhukar, the main accused in the first information report pertaining to the stampede in Hathras that killed 121 persons, reported The Indian Express.
Madhukar was referred to as the “mukhya sevadar” or chief volunteer, in the first information report. He had been missing since the stampede.
“Madhukar is a heart patient and was undergoing treatment in Delhi,” his lawyer AP Singh told The Indian Express on Friday. “After doctors said that his condition is okay, we got him handed over to the police.”
The stampede occurred on Tuesday at a gathering convened by religious preacher Narayan Saakar Hari, popularly known as Bhole Baba, at Fulrai village in Sikandrarau tehsil. A crowd of about 2.5 lakh persons from several districts and nearby states had gathered at the venue for the event.
On Saturday, Hari, who was not named in the first information report, issued his first statement since the stampede and said “those who created chaos will not be spared”, reported ANI.
On Thursday, the police arrested six persons, including two women, who had organised the religious gathering in the Hathras district.
Aligarh Inspector-General of Police Shalabh Mathur said that all six were members of the event’s organising committee and worked as “sevadars [religious volunteers]”, according to ANI. “When the stampede occurred the six servitors who are now arrested had run away from the site,” he added.
Those arrested were identified as Ram Ladete from Mainpuri, Upendra Singh Yadav from Firozabad, Mek Singh from Hathras, and Manju Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Manju Devi from Sikandrarao, The Indian Express reported.
Preacher’s statement
Hari told ANI on Saturday that he was “deeply saddened by the incident of July 2”.
“May God give us the strength to bear this pain,” he said. Please keep faith in the government and the administration.”
He claimed that he had requested the members of his community to stand with the bereaved families and the injured and help them throughout their lives, reported ANI.
On Wednesday, a lawyer representing the preacher claimed that the stampede was caused by “anti-social elements”.
However, a report by a local sub-divisional magistrate said that the incident took place when several of the leader’s followers rushed towards him as he was leaving the venue. The devotees were trying to get a closer glimpse of Hari and collect his “charan raj”, or soil from the ground where he had walked.
Hari was a former police officer and was last posted in Madhya Pradesh before he began conducting religious events in 2002, according to local reports. He has since been holding such gatherings in parts of Aligarh, Agra, Khurja, Bulandshahr and Hathras.
Also read: Hathras disaster that killed 100 not a ‘stampede’, signals urgent need for risk planning
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