116 dead in stampede at Hathras Bhole Baba Saakar Vishwa Hari Satsang, with top cops arriving at accident site and guru’s ashram in Mainpuri the day after.

Senior police officials have arrived at the Hathras stampede site, while others are present at the Ram Kutir Charitable Trust, the ashram of the self-styled guru. Additionally, a large number of his devotees have gathered at the ashram, as witnessed by an NDTV team. In Hathras, a forensic unit and a dog squad are currently at the stampede site, along with teams from the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). According to a woman who attended the ‘satsang,’ the stampede occurred as the crowd started to disperse.

Sources mentioned that devotees were held back from leaving until the guru’s car departed, resulting in a significant crowd build-up in a restricted area. These devotees had traveled to the ‘satsang’ from various districts of Uttar Pradesh and neighboring states. In response to the incident, a high-level committee has been formed to investigate the matter, with the Additional Director General of Police, Agra, and the Aligarh Commissioner leading the panel, as announced by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The stampede resulted in the deaths of at least 116 people, including 106 women and seven children.

The Uttar Pradesh government has stated that most of the deceased have been identified, and families of the deceased will receive a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each, while the injured will receive Rs 50,000. President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims. The self-styled guru, originally named Narayan Saakar Hari, was a head constable with the Local Intelligence Unit of the UP police before leaving the force in 1999 and adopting his new name. He claims to have initially worked for the Intelligence Bureau after college and to have turned towards spirituality during his tenure there.