LUCKNOW: The death toll in the stampede that broke out in a ‘satsang’ here rose to 121 on Wednesday and police filed an FIR against the organisers, accusing them of hiding evidence and flouting conditions with 2.5 lakh people crammed into a venue in which only 80,000 were permitted. Scores of devotees were left injured in the tragedy. The incident occurred in Phulrai village, around 47 km from Hathras town.Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede — which took place at around 3.30 pm when the Baba was leaving the venue with some accounts saying people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher’s car. Three ministers—UP Cabinet minister Chadhury Laxmi Narayan, UP MoS Sandeep Singh and Asim Arun along with UP Chief Secretary Manoj Singh and UP DGP Prashant Kumar are already staying put in Hathras evaluating the situation. In the meantime, the Hathras district administration has filed an FIR against the organisers including chief Sewadar Devprakash Madhukar and several other unnamed organisers. However, the godman Bole Baba has not been named in the FIR. While the state government has put around 34 districts of western and central UP on high alert, the Hathras police have launched a manhunt for Bhole Baba. Raids have been conducted on his Mainpuri Ashram on Tuesday night. He is yet to be nabbed. The FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), according to reports by PTI.The FIR also says that the bodyguards of the Bhole Baba stopped the devotees who were rushing to take his blessings in the field and that led them to fall in a ditch over one another leading to the loss of so many lives. The UP Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh had also confirmed overcrowding of the venue as a reason for the tragedy.
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