Bodies of victims of the Hathras stampede lie at Bagla District Hospital in Hathras Photo | PTI
India

SIT probing Hathras stampede submits report to UP government

A separate judicial commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava, and retired IPS Hemant Rao is also probing the Hathras stampede case.

PTI

LUCKNOW: A special investigation team (SIT) constituted to probe the Hathras stampede has submitted its report to the Uttar Pradesh government, a senior official said on Tuesday.

India Today reported that the report held overcrowding as the main reason behind the stampede.

The July 2 stampede at the 'satsang' of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba claimed 121 lives.

The SIT comprised Additional Director General of Police (Agra Zone) Anupam Kulshrestha and Aligarh Divisional Commissioner Chaitra V.

"The SIT has submitted its report to the government," Director of Information, Shishir said. He, however, did not reveal the contents of the report.

Kulshrestha told PTI on July 5 that they have not ruled out the conspiracy angle in the stampede and added that the culpability of the incident was on the organisers of the event.

A separate judicial commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava, and retired IPS Hemant Rao is also probing the Hathras stampede case.

Government agencies, including police, have so far blamed the organisers for the mismanagement at the event, noting that the size of the crowd exceeded to over 2.50 lakh from the permitted 80,000.

The lawyer of the 'godman', however, on July 6 claimed "some poisonous substance" sprayed by "some unidentified men" triggered the stampede.

So far, nine people, including key accused Devprakash Madhukar, have been arrested in connection with the stampede.

Madhukar was the main organiser and fundraiser of the July 2 'satsang' of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba at Phulrai village.

The godman was not mentioned as accused in the FIR lodged at the local Sikandrarau police station on July 2.

Microsoft restores all services after global outage, apologises and cites network upgrade issue

Delhi Police proposes 50,000-person cap, 10 am to 5 pm window for gatherings at Ramlila Maidan

Delhi AQI remains very poor at 348, several monitoring stations record severe pollution

Nehru archive a ‘kavach’ against ‘distorians’ led by ‘supposed MA in Entire Political Science’: Jairam Ramesh

Delhi corners Dhaka with water diplomacy as India plans to let Ganga treaty expire