As the families of the 121 devotees killed in a stampede at a satsang in Hathras mourned their loss, self-styled godman Suraj Pal aka Bhole Baba decided to lie low and the organisers were allowed to clean up the site before the arrival of a forensic team.

In a statement on Wednesday in which he condoled the loss of lives, Pal claimed that “anti-social elements” were behind the stampede.

His two upcoming congregations in Agra have now been cancelled by the authorities.

A native of Bahadurnagar village in Kasganj district, Bhole Baba, also known as Narayan Saakaar Vishwa Hari, had arrived at Phulrai village in Sikandararaau to conduct a three-day satsang that ended in the tragedy on Tuesday.

Pal used to be a constable with Uttar Pradesh police before being suspended 18 years ago on the charge of sexually harassing a woman in Etawah, police sources said. Thereafter, he became a religious preacher and soon came to acquire a significant number of followers.

Eyewitnesses said the devotees had tried to rush out of the cordoned area to touch the preacher’s feet and collect gulal from the rangoli on which he had walked at the end of the event, triggering the stampede.

A pack of bindi lies at the site where the stampede killed 121 people. Reuters

Residents of Pal’s native village Bahadurnagar, however, praised him for never asking for any donation or chadhava (offerings) from anyone.

Earlier, Pal used to conduct satsangs at a dham in his village but he stopped after the programmes started getting crowded.

The villagers said the “Bhavya Dham” ashram was built out of voluntary donations he received from his devotees. Women of the village said Pal’s conduct was “very good” and he only talked about things related to God.

Slippers of a child left behind at the site after tragedy. Reuters

Dhan Singh and Mohit Kumar said Pal lives near the ashram.

The locals said the preacher was over 60 and did not have children. They said he had adopted a girl, who died 16-17 years ago. Pal had kept her body at home for two days hoping she would come alive. The police had to intervene and cremate the body, the locals said.

Currently, Pal is said to be present at an ashram in Mainpuri. A large number of cops were deployed outside the ashram a day after the stampede.

Belongings of people are seen at the site where believers had gathered. Reuters

Officials remained tight-lipped when asked if Pal was inside the ashram. However, some police sources said he was indeed there.

Although an inquiry was ordered within a few hours of the stampede, the district administration allowed the organisers to remove the tents, canopy and barricades at night.

Eyewitnesses said a forensic team and a dog squad reached the spot on Wednesday morning after the site had been cleaned.

A broken spectacle frame at the site. Reuters

“Obviously, the government doesn’t want to believe that the incident was the result of mismanagement of Bhole Baba and the district administration. The government wants to investigate a conspiracy angle,” said Vijay Yadav, a local.

“It is not difficult to understand what the government wants. The police have not yet booked Bhole Baba. The poor devotees had tried to rush out of the narrow passageway inside the tent to collect the rangoli on which the Baba had walked when the massive stampede happened,” he said.

Bindeshwari Singh, a resident of Sikandararaau, told reporters that Pal’s managers and bodyguards attacked people with lathis when they tried to shoot videos at the site an hour after the stampede.

“They snatched our mobile phones and didn’t return them. They removed the tents and barriers and took them away in around 10 trucks in the presence of the police last night,” he said.

Singh said he used to attend Pal’s satsangs but felt disillusioned when he saw goons in black pants and T-shirts beating the devotees with lathis in the name of crowd management.

“I personally put over 40 bodies in trolleys and ambulances with the help of other villagers. But I am shocked to know that the government is trying to save Suraj Pal. I came to know that he was a constable and was suspended 18 years ago for sexually harassing a woman in Etawah,” he added.

The police have not named Pal in the FIR, which mentions only Dev Prakash Madhukar, one of the organisers of the congregation. The other organisers, who were named in a banner at the site, were referred to as “unidentified” in the FIR. They are Narayan Saakaar Hari alias Bhole Baba, Mahesh Chandra, Anar Singh, Sanjay Yadav, Chandra Deva and Ram Prakash.

Madhukar has been booked under several IPC sections, including Section 105 which puts the onus of proving that the case comes within exceptions on him.

Government sources told The Telegraph in Lucknow that the local administration has submitted a report to the government blaming the “sewadars (managers of the function)” of Pal for the incident.

“The report has mentioned that the bodyguards of Bhole Baba thrashed his followers and created panic when people ran to touch his feet. The report also states that 2.50 lakh followers had reached the venue against 80,000 for which the organisers had taken permission,” said a home department official.

“If it’s true, the local administration can’t be given a clean chit. It was their responsibility to immediately send forces there to regulate the crowd,” he added.

Santosha Devi of Etah, whose mother is missing, told reporters: “The organisers had prepared a rangoli on a 200-metre stretch outside the canopy where Baba was sitting. We were told that Baba would walk on it at the end of the event and the followers must collect some of it for good fortune. While people started running after Baba, his bodyguards beat them with lathis. Some devotees who were at the gate of the canopy broke the barricade on their right and fell into a nullah.”

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited the Hathras district hospital on Wednesday to meet the injured and later told reporters: “A total of 121 devotees died in the stampede. They were from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.”

“A group of women rushed to touch the preacher when he was leaving but a wave of crowd came from behind and the tragedy happened. I have constituted an SIT under additional director-general of police (Anupam Kulshrestha). The culprits must be brought to book,” he said.

Hathras district magistrate Ashish Kumar said: “We are probing all possible angles, including conspiracy.”

Rekha Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, said: “I think an FIR should be registered against Narayan Saakaar. Whatever he did in the programme was illegal.”

With additional inputs from PTI