Hathras: On the matter of death of 121 people in the stampede after the satsang in Hathras, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, after meeting the victims, announced that a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the entire incident. This committee will investigate under the chairmanship of a High Court judge. Whoever is found guilty will be punished and suggestions and SOPs will be made to prevent such incidents from happening again, this will be ensured by this inquiry committee.
Yogi Adityanath said in the press conference that ‘usually in such programs, the arrangements are in the hands of the sevadars deployed there. If this was an accident, then the sevadars should have strengthened their arrangements. When the accident happened, the sevadars should have come forward to help along with the administration, but the sevadars ran away from there’.
On the question of FIR against Baba, Yogi Adityanath said that ‘a case has been registered against the organizers. As the investigation progresses, an FIR will be lodged against whoever comes under its purview’.
On the question of Akhilesh Yadav raising questions on the state government regarding this incident, he said that some people have a tendency to find politics in such incidents. Naturally, it can be seen with whom the gentleman’s photo is.
The Chief Minister said that ‘Arrangements were made at the government level to get to the bottom of this sad and painful incident. First, it was decided to run a relief and rescue operation. 121 devotees have died in this accident, who were residents of UP as well as Haryana, Rajasthan and MP. Devotees from 16 districts including Hathras, Badaun, Kasganj, Aligarh, Etah, Lalitpur, Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Gautam Buddha Nagar in UP have also become victims of the accident. Out of 121, 6 deceased were from other states’.
He said that ’31 injured are being treated in hospitals in Hathras, Etah, Agra and they are fine. I have also talked to them. Everyone said that the incident happened after the program, when the program or story of the gentleman who had come there to preach ended.. After this, as soon as his convoy arrived, the crowd went forward to touch him and became uncontrolled. People climbed over each other. The sevadars also kept pushing people. The most sad aspect was that the sevadars did not allow the administration to enter. Initially, they first tried to suppress the incident and most of the sevadars ran away. An SIT has been formed under the chairmanship of ADG Agra, which has submitted a report and has been asked to get to the bottom of this incident.
He said that ‘Prima facie, an FIR has been registered to call the organizers for questioning, to inquire about the incident and to fix the accountability of those responsible and negligence. Such an incident is not just an accident, who is responsible behind it, whose conspiracy is it, a judicial inquiry will be conducted on all these aspects. This committee will investigate under the chairmanship of a High Court judge. Whoever is found guilty will be punished and it will be ensured that such accidents do not happen again, suggestions and SOPs can be made about them. Its notification will be issued today.
He further said that ‘I also visited the accident site, but I went there to see the initial arrangements for the causes of the accident. Some special teams have been formed for investigation, which will start their respective actions.’
