LUCKNOW : While Devprakash Madhukar, the main accused of Hathras stampede, surrendered to the Delhi Police late on Friday night and was taken into custody by the UP Police, the self-styled godman Bhole Baba alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Suraj Pal, expressed grief over the tragedy at an event at his Satsang Sabha in Hathras.
Four days after the stampede, the preacher on Saturday told a news agency he hoped strict action would be taken against the culprits.
Speaking from his Mainpuri Ashram, Bhole Baba urged the bereaved families to have faith in the judiciary. “I am deeply saddened. May God give us the strength to bear this pain. Please keep faith in the government and the administration. I have faith that anyone who created the chaos would not be spared,” he said.
An FIR was lodged in the matter on July 2 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence). However, Bhole Baba was not named in the FIR.
Dev Prakash Madhukar, the mukhya sevadar of Bhole Baba, is the only accused named in the FIR. Hathras SP Nipun Agarwal said Madhukar was arrest from Delhi and brought to Hathras to be presented in court.
In a recorded message, Madhukar’s lawyer A P Singh said that his client had surrendered in Delhi, where he was under treatment.
“Today, we have made Devprakash Madhukar, who has been called the main organiser in the FIR in the Hathras case, to surrender after calling the police, the SIT and the STF in Delhi since he was undergoing treatment here,” Singh said. “We had promised we would not apply for anticipatory bail since we did no wrong,” he claimed.