Agra: Self-styled godman Suraj Pal, better known as “Bhole Baba”, at whose event 121 people were killed during a stampede in Hathras, surfaced in a video on Saturday, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the accident and that people “must keep faith in the government”, even as investigators said they were still on the lookout for him and political parties accused the Uttar Pradesh Police of trying to shield the preacher, who has not been named in the FIR.
The tragedy unfolded on Tuesday when Pal was leaving his congregation and a large mass of devotees started to run towards his convoy, to gather dust from the ground he had touched, falling over each other on the slippery, sloping ground as the preacher’s guards stopped people from approaching him. Officials said the event was allotted permission for 80,000 people, but was attended by nearly 250,000.
“May God give us the strength to bear this pain. Please keep faith in the government and the administration. I have faith that those who created the chaos will not be spared,” he said in a video statement released to the media.
“Through my lawyer AP Singh, I have requested the members of the committee to stand with the bereaved families and the injured and help them throughout their lives,” said Pal, who is also known as Narayan Sakar Hari, wearing white, sitting in front of a white background.
“This is the best we all can do in the present crisis and for this I pray for wiser thoughts,” he said, rounding off the 2.5 minute statement.
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His statement came a day after the state police on Friday arrested Devprakash Madhukar, the prime suspect and head volunteer of the event, and on the day a judicial panel put in place by the state government began its probe into the July 2 accident that triggered uproar across the country and exposed a raft of administrative failures.
Madhukar was on Saturday produced before a magistrate and sent to 14-days’ judicial custody.
Meanwhile, Hathras superintendent of police Nipun Aggarwal during a press briefing on Saturday said the force was still on the hunt for the 65-year-old preacher, who was initially thought to have been holed up in his ashram in Mainpuri. “Surveillance teams are on the task and hunting for Bhole Baba,” said Aggarwal. To be sure, Pal was not named in the first information report filed within hours of the accident, even as police have made six arrests in the case.The judicial probe panel, for its part, inspected the accident site on Saturday. Justice Brijesh Kumar Srivastava (retired), the head of the panel, said it will file its report in two months.
“What were the entry and exit points? We can’t come to any conclusion right now. All the members (of the committee) are present here. We will question all those who need to be questioned,” he said. Opposition parties in the state hit out at the police and administration.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the Uttar Pradesh government of trying to hide its failure in the accident.
“…The UP government wants to shirk responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of people by making minor arrests. If this happens, it will mean that no one has learnt any lesson from the administrative failure in such events and such accidents will keep repeating in the future,” he said in a post on X.
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“The government and administration are needlessly arresting people who were away from the original venue with a specific motive and are preparing to hold them guilty after the arrest,” said Yadav, without naming anyone.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati urged people “not to be misled” by preachers like Pal.
“The poor, Dalits and the oppressed in the country should not worsen their misery and pain by getting misled by the superstitions and hypocrisy of many such babas like Bhole Baba of Hathras to get rid of their poverty and all other problems,” she said in a post in Hindi on X.
Police are now investigating the funding source of Pal’s events, said officers, adding that there were suspicions he was being bankrolled by “a political party”.
“A detailed investigation is being conducted regarding the collection of funds to see if such programmes and other resources are being funded by any political party. From the investigation so far, it appears that some political party is connected with them for its political and personal interests,” he said.
