Hathras tragedy: Mason numb with grief after losing mother, wife and teenaged daughter

HATHRAS: Kumar, who is numb with grief, told TOI: "I was out for work when I got a call from my family members saying that my mother, wife and daughter had gone to attend a satsang, about which I was unaware, where a stampede had broken out. I hired a taxi and rushed to the venue with my three sons, all teenagers. There, we were told that the victims had been taken to hospital, but no one told us which one."


"We went from hospital to hospital, looking at the faces of dead people, searching for our loved ones but couldn't find them. Some bodies were sent to Hathras hospital. We went there, and at midnight, we finally found the bodies of my wife, Raj Kumari (42), and daughter, Bhumi (16). They were kept on ice slabs among several other dead women and children lying unattended," recalled Kumar.

However, Kumar was yet to find his mother, Jaimanti Devi (65). He sat near his wife and daughter's bodies, staring at them and crying his eyes out before his elder son reminded him to continue the search for their grandmother.

Jaimanti was the main devotee of Bhole Baba and had persuaded the family to worship him. "Had they not gone to the satsang, they would be alive," Kumar said.

Eventually, Jaimanti's remains were found at the mortuary in Agra. Three bodies, zipped in black body bags, were brought to the village in a sombre atmosphere.