Yogi Adityanath On Hathras Incident: Preacher's Sevadars Tried To Downplay Stampede Initially, Fled During Rescue Operation

After chairing a meeting with officials and meeting victims of the Hathras stampede incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a press conference and emphasised strict action would be taken.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed under the leadership of the Additional Director General (ADG) of Police, Agra and a preliminary report has been submitted in this regard.

"They have been told to investigate this deeply. There are several angles that need to be investigated," Adityanath said adding that the priority till now was relief and rescue operation.

"This is not just an accident, somebody is responsible for it, somebody might have conspired. State Government has decided to have a judicial inquiry for it which will be led by a retired High Court judge," he added.

Retired senior officials of the Administration and Police will also be a part of the judicial inquiry team to give a conclusive report on the matter and organisers will be interrogated, the UP CM said.

Adityanath said that to stop such events from happening in the future, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is also being sought from this team, which can be implemented.

"A total of 121 devotees have lost their lives. They were from UP, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Most people who lost their lives were from 16 districts from UP while six were from other states," he informed.

"31 injured people are undergoing treatment and almost everyone is out of danger. Several eyewitnesses say that the incident took place after the program was over and followers started moving towards the preacher," he added.

"Sevadars were pushing people which escalated the situation around G T Road. The saddest part is that these sevadars don't allow the administration to enter the event," the UP CM continued.

He alleged that the sevadars even tried to downplay the accident initially and when the administration started taking the injured to the hospital, they fled.

Notably, a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against main sewadar Devprakash Madhukar and other unidentified organisers on Sub-inspector Brajesh Pandey's complaint.