Hathras stampede: 'Bhole Baba' linked to JEN paper leak kingpin in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: Bhole Baba, the self-proclaimed spiritual leader whose ‘satsang’ event at a Hathras village ended in a stampede that killed over 100 people, has links with a paper leak accused in Rajasthan. He ran an ashram on a piece of land that was allegedly provided to him by the kingpin of the junior engineer (JEN) paper leak case.
Special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police discovered on Wednesday that Bhole Baba was in touch with Harshvardhan Meena, a patwari who was arrested in Feb for leaking the JEN exam papers, causing a huge uproar in Rajasthan.The ‘godman’ used to regularly hold congregations at Meena’s house in Dausa district.
ADGP (SOG) V K Singh said, “We had arrested Meena from Nepal in the paper leak case. It was he who provided the ashram to the baba, and the latter used to live there. However, when we intensified searches and raids at premises linked to Meena, the godman fled from Dausa.”
Singh said police did not pursue Bhole Baba since he was not wanted in the paper leak case. After the Hathras tragedy, locals reached the Dausa ashram in large numbers on Wednesday. They claimed Baba had not held any congregation there after SOG began raiding the place. “It appears that Baba maintained a temporary camp at Meena’s house. We don’t know yet if he knew about Meena’s activities,” said an official.