Hathras stampede: Police arrests 6 organisers
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Hathras: Uttar Pradesh police arrested six satsang organisers on Thursday following the horrific incident of 121 people dying in a stampede here.
Aligarh IG Shalabh Mathur said that the four of the arrested were men and two were women, and they all are members of the organising committee. They worked as ‘Sevadars’. Further, the senior official said that a non-bailable warrant would be issued against chief sevadar Devprakash Madhukar, The Indian Express reported.
It was on Wednesday that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister ordered a judicial investigation into the incident. The investigation commission was led by retired High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava and two other retired IAS officers, Hemant Rao and Bhavesh Kumar Singh. When the police prepared an FIR against the organisers and the investigation was going on, Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari or ‘Bhole Baba’ was yet to be named in the case. The event where the stampede occurred was hosted by the self-styled religious preacher Bhole Baba.
TIE reports that the Baba was arrested back in 2000 for claiming that he had magical powers. He had forcefully taken the dead body of a 16-year-old girl from her family, claiming that he could bring her back to life, it was alleged. The TIE report states that the Baba was a former police constable.