Hathras stampede: Bodies of all victims identified, handed over to kin

Hathras: The bodies of all victims of the Hathras stampede have been identified and handed over to their families, District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said here on Thursday.

A total of 121 people, mostly women, died and 31 were injured in the stampede at the preacher Baba Bhole's satsang in Hathras on Tuesday.

After the stampede, 21 bodies were taken to Agra, 28 to Etah, 34 were in Hathras and 38 in Aligarh, according to officials.

"All the bodies have been identified and handed over (to respective families)," Kumar told PTI here on Thursday.

He said of the three bodies that were unidentified till Wednesday, two were recognised late in the night and one through video call on Thursday morning.

"The last body was identified by the family over a video call. They are on their way to Aligarh hospital (to get the body)," the district magistrate added.

Kumar, a 2015-batch IAS officer who joined as Hathras DM barely a week before the stampede, said there is no report of any missing person now.

"We had deployed district administration personnel to count the number of people who had gone to the event ('satsang') and returned," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh government has announced a monetary relief of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 for those injured," the officer said.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday formed a three-member judicial commission headed by a retired high court judge to probe the Hathras tragedy, also looking into the possibility that a "conspiracy" was behind the stampede. The panel will submit its report in two months.

The police have filed an FIR against the organisers of the 'satsang' near Phulhari village in Hathras, accusing them of cramming 2.5 lakh people into the venue when they had obtained permission for only 80,000.

'Mukhya sevadar' Devprakash Madhukar and other organisers are named as the accused in the FIR filed at the Sikandra Rau police station late on Tuesday. The preacher, who is called Jagat Guru Saakar Vishwahari Bhole Baba, is not on the list.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who visited Hathras on Wednesday and met the injured, was asked why the preacher was not named in the FIR as an accused.

He had said, "Prima facie, the case has been filed against those who applied for permission for the event. Whoever is responsible for this will come under its purview."