Narayan Saakar Hari, aka Bhole Baba may be arrested soon after a tragic stampede at his ‘satsang’ (religious congregation) in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras resulted in the deaths of over 100 people on Tuesday. The self-styled godman, originally named Suraj Pal, is believed to be at his ‘ashram’ in Mainpuri, about 100 km from Phulrai village, the site of the ill-fated event attended by thousands of devotees.
Senior police officials have reached the site of the stampede in Hathras, while others are at his ashram, the Ram Kutir Charitable Trust.
The stampede claimed at least 121 lives. This included over 100 women and seven children, and injured 28 others. The Uttar Pradesh government has announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh for the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 for the injured. Six victims remain unidentified.
President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims. Officials noted that the venue was too small to accommodate the massive crowd that had gathered on Tuesday afternoon. According to a woman who attended the ‘satsang,’ the stampede began as the crowd started to leave. The situation escalated when followers rushed to collect dust from the tire trail of Bhole Baba’s car, leading to the trampling of hundreds of people. Devotees had come from various districts of Uttar Pradesh and neighboring states.
A high-level committee has been formed to investigate the incident, headed by the Additional Director General of Police, Agra, and the Aligarh Commissioner, as announced by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. A case has been filed against the ‘satsang’ organizers in Hathras. According to the FIR, permission was granted for 80,000 attendees, but more than 2.5 lakh devotees attended the event.
The FIR describes how the uncontrollable crowd caused chaos, with devotees on the ground being crushed and others running in water and mud-filled fields being forcibly stopped by the organizing committee with sticks. This led to increasing pressure from the crowd, resulting in the trampling of women, children, and men. Despite the efforts of police and administrative officials to assist and transport the injured to hospitals, the FIR states that the organizers provided no cooperation.
The organizers have been charged under several sections of the new criminal code, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 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 a public servant), and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence).
Narayan Saakar Hari, who often claims to have worked with the Intelligence Bureau, has told his devotees that he turned towards spirituality while working and resigned in the 1990s to pursue the spiritual path. Born in Bahadur Nagari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district to a farmer, Nanne Lal, and Katori Devi, he completed his initial studies in the village. He was reportedly a head constable with the Local Intelligence Unit of the UP police before leaving his job in 1999 and adopting the name Narayan Saakar Hari. He asserts that he began working for the Intelligence Bureau after college and turned to spirituality during his tenure there.
