Hathras stampede: Police looking at political funding for baba's events

LUCKNOW: The police probing the Hathras stampede that killed 121 people attending a religious event on Saturday said that questioning of the prime accused Devprakash Madhukar - chief organiser and fundraiser - has revealed that he was contacted by some political parties a few days ago and it appears that a party was associating itself with the organisation committee for political gains.

On Saturday, Madhukar was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. He had surrendered before the police late on Friday night.

Holding a press conference in Hathras, superintendent of police Nipun Agarwal said, "Devpraakash Madhukar has been associated with the organisation for a long time and apart from running the organisation, he also collected funds for satsangs." Revealing that some political parties got in touch with him a few days ago, Agarwal said the police is investigating in depth about the funding and whether any political party sponsored their resources.

Agarwal said all bank accounts related to Madhukar, fixed and movable assets, money trail etc., is being probed and according to need, relevant agencies will be sought help from. Earlier in the day, Agarwal had also said that the police is compiling a list of donors who donated to towards the organisation as it needed to be probed how events of such a large scale were held with sevadars getting their own uniforms etc.

While the police did not name any political party, pictures of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attending one of the satsangs of Narayan Sakar Hari last year had surfaced soon after the incident. CM Yogi Adityanath had also, without naming, sought to suggest that the baba had "political links" with the party.

Meanwhile, four days after the tragic incident occurred, Narayan Sakar Hari issued his first statement and said the "anarchists" behind the incident would not be spared. He urged his followers to "have faith" in the government and administration.

A three-member judicial enquiry commission formed under a retired high court judge also arrived in Hathras on Saturday to begin its work, and inspected the site where the stampede took place among other areas.

"We saw the spot from where the people came and from where they went, what kind of a rush would have been there, what were the exit points and what could have been the capacity and where exactly the event took place," justice Brijesh Kumar Srivastava (retired) told media. The commission has been asked to give its report in two months.