As a religious event turned into a site of chaos at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, families of hundreds of dead and injured scrambled to locate their loved ones – searching hospitals across the region “without much help” from the administration.
Police officials said at least 121 people had died and more than a hundred were injured in the stampede at the satsang at Phuleria village in Sikandra Rau district, where self-acclaimed godman Bhole Baba alias Baba Sakar Vishwa Hari and his wife were delivering a sermon.
Locals said the venue was overcrowded with much more people than permitted by the district administration. Newslaundry learned that many devotees ran after the “godman’s” car to collect the “holy” soil and flowers crushed by its tyres, a melee ensued, and many slipped and fell, subsequently trampled upon.
Amar Pal Singh and four of his family members – his father, wife, sister-in-law and nephew – attended the satsang. He, his wife and his father escaped the stampede, while his nephew Rehan died, and his sister-in-law was still missing at the time of filing the report.
Singh told Newslaundry, “My nephew Rehan was with his mother Nidhi during the satsang. We had decided to meet at the place where our vehicle was parked after the satsang. We somehow managed to reach there after the stampede. But my sister-in-law and nephew were missing. We went from hospital to hospital looking for them. I eventually found the dead body of my nephew. But we still have no idea about my sister-in-law…where she is? How is she? Is she dead or alive?”
Urmila Devi, a woman in her 70s, had travelled to Hathras for the religious event with her granddaughter Khushboo, 16, from Atrauli village in Aligarh. When Newslaundry met her around 4 am, she had stayed put at Sikandra Rao Trauma Centre for “more than 12 hours”. Devi said she couldn’t go from one hospital to the other and was waiting for a “miracle” to find her granddaughter and get in contact with her family.
‘Baba is a conman, ran away’
Gudia Devi had traveled to Hathras for the satsang all the way from Agra. Mehtab Singh, her husband, told Newslaundry, he had asked her to not go to the event.
Singh said, “I lost my wife. She worked with me in the fields in the morning and now she is no more. What will I do without her? I told her not to go to the satsang today. I requested her to go after 10-12 days, but she insisted and came. The baba is a dhongi, or conman. So many dead bodies are here, if he was a real godman, this wouldn’t have happened with his followers. My daughter also used to go to his satsang but from now onward I’ll never let her go there.”
Rajesh Kumar, a daily wager from Sikandarpur in Aligarh, said his mother Mausari Devi had set out for the satsang in the wee hours. “We are three brothers, none of us ever believed in that dhongi baba, we always asked her to stop following him. He is not real, but she never listened to us. This morning while all of us were sleeping, she silently went for the satsang. if we were up, we would have never let her go.”
Kumar alleged that the baba was a “fraud” who had “run away” after the incident. He also demanded that the self-acclaimed godman be severely punished. “That baba is a fraud. While the stampede happened, he didn’t stop. And he just ran away. Till now, he hasn’t come to see any of those who died or got injured. Who can do this to his followers? He must be punished for this, I believe in Modi and Yogi. They will give him the highest punishment.”
‘No one helping us,’ kin of people missing, dead
Girandh, who is a native of Kashganj but works in Delhi, had been looking for his father Sironji Lal for about eight hours when Newslaundry met him. He said he had looked for Lal everywhere – from the location of the event to the Sikandra Rao Trauma Centre, Hathras District Hospital and Aligarh District Hospital – but to no avail.
Girandh said, “My father is missing after the stampede. My two brothers and I have been trying to call him but his phone is switched off. All of us work in Delhi and came to Hathras after we learned about the incident. From the last 7-8 hours we have been running from the event venue to the hospitals, but we have got no information about our father. My mother is continuously crying at home, but we have nothing to tell her – whether he is dead or alive.”
He added that “no one is helping us”. “Even the doctor, staff and the police are not helping us. We just searched the mortuary. Now, they are suggesting we visit hospitals and mortuaries in Agra. If we don’t find him there, we will go to Ehata and Kasganj, where some injured and dead have been shifted.”
As Bharat Kumar learned about the incident around 3:30 pm, he called up his sister Pushpa Devi who was also at the event. Kumar told Newslaundry that someone else picked up the call and told him that they found the phone at the site of the incident.
Kumar said, “Right then I rushed to the Sikandrarao Trauma Centre but she was not there. A staff member asked me to visit Hathras and Alighar district hospitals. I have been looking for her for the last 12 hours but with no success. I came back to the trauma centre around 3 am to find any leads about her.”
Kumar said that over 12 hours, he visited every department of Hathras District Hospital and three other hospitals at Aligarh – Aligarh District Hospital, Pandit Deen Dayal Hospital, Malkhan Singh Hospital. “Police officials are not very helpful, they only help in identifying bodies at the mortuary”
The Uttar Pradesh government, meanwhile, announced a compensation of Rs two lakh to the families of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 for those who are injured. Many families were still waiting for information about their missing kin at the time of filing this report.
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