Congress MP Rahul Gandhi arrived at Pilakhna village in Aligarh on Friday morning, to meet with the families of the victims of the Hathras stampede that claimed the lives of 121 people and left over a dozen injured.
The stampede took place on the evening of July 2 at a Satsang of religious preacher Suraj Pal who also goes by the names of Narayan Sakar Hari and ‘Bhole Baba’.
Uttar Pradesh Police conducted a search operation at Ram Kutir Charitable Trust in Mainpuri on Thursday for the self-styled godman.
An FIR has been registered in the incident naming organizers of the event.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mainpuri Sunil Kumar said yesterday that ‘Bhole Baba was not found inside his ashram.
Superintendent of Hathras City, Rahul Mithas also said that they did not find the preacher in the ashram.
On Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the site of the tragedy and ordered a judicial probe into the incident.
A three-member Judicial Inquiry Commission under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava has been constituted to ensure comprehensiveness of the subject matter and transparency in the inquiry.
The Judicial Commission will investigate the stampede incident over the the next two months and submit its report to the State Government.
As per the prima facie report, the stampede took place when devotees rushed to seek blessings and collect soil from around the preacher’s feet, but were stopped from doing so by his security personnel. They then started pushing one another due to which several people fell down triggering chaos at the site.
