- Sunday, July 07, 2024
A reward of Rs 1 lakh (£939) will be announced soon and non-bailable warrant will also be issued against key accused Devprakash Madhukar, the chief volunteer.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday (4) said they have arrested six ‘sevadars’ (volunteers), including two women, of the organising committee in connection with the stampede at a religious event in Hathras in the state on Tuesday (2) that killed 121 people.
The only accused named in the first information report (FIR) is at large while preacher Surajpal, who is also known as Narayan Sakar Hari and Bhole Baba, will be questioned if required during investigation, a senior officer said.
“All six persons who have been arrested worked are ‘sevadars’ at the ‘satsang’ (prayer meeting),” inspector general of police (Aligarh range) Shalabh Mathur told reporters in Hathras.
Read: Who is Bhole Baba, the preacher at centre of Hathras stampede
“A reward of Rs 1 lakh (£939) will be announced soon and non-bailable warrant will also be issued against key accused Devprakash Madhukar,” Mathur said. Madhukar is the chief ‘sevadar’.
The preacher, Surajpal, was not mentioned as an accused in the FIR lodged at the local Sikandra Rau police station on Tuesday after the stampede took place at Phulrai village. It was said that the incident happened when the devotees rushed to seek the preacher’s blessings as he left.
Read: India stampede: People fell while trying to seek missing godman’s blessings, says eyewitness
It was also reported that 250,000 people had assembled at the event area when the permission was for 80,000.
Those arrested have been identified by the police as Ram Ladaite (50), Upendra ingh Yadav (62), Megh Singh (61), Mukesh Kumar (38), and women Manju Yadav (30) and Manju Devi (40).
All six were arrested on Thursday by the officials of Hathras Kotwali and Sikandra Rau police stations, the police said.
“When information regarding the arrestees was obtained through detailed enquiry, these people told during inquiry that they are members of the organising committee and work as ‘sevadars’,” Mathur added.
The FIR was lodged on July 2 under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 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) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence).
The BNS has replaced India’s age-old Indian Penal Code and came into effect on Monday (1).
