Suraj Pal aka Bhole Baba appeared before the media on Saturday, four days after his satsang in Hathras triggered a massive stampede and killed 126 people, to shed tears and claim that whatever happened was part of a conspiracy.

“I am very sad after the incident of July 2. May god give strength to the family members of the victims to bear with the losses,” Pal told media in his palatial house (ashram) at Bichuva village in Mainpuri district.

“They (the victim’s families and the injured persons) must trust the administration and the government. I am sure that the saboteurs would not be spared. I have requested the committee members (the organisers of his satsang) through my lawyer A.P. Singh to stand by the family members of the dead and the injured throughout their lives. They all have accepted (my request). They are already taking the responsibility to not to leave the victims alone.”

Police have so far arrested seven persons, including Dev Prakash Madhukar who was the only one named in the FIR as the chief organiser of the satsang in Phulrai, Hathras.

Pal’s statement seems to dovetail nicely with the line of investigation that Yogi Adityanath’s government had taken within a few hours of the tragedy. A large number of devotees had trampled each other at the satsang in a race to touch the rangoli on which the Baba had walked.

Singh, Pal’s lawyer, said: “The special investigation team is conducting an inquiry and everything would be clear. We don’t want to apply for any anticipatory bail because he is not related to the unfortunate incident.”

The state government has not mentioned Pal’s name in the FIR and has not showed any inclination to interrogate him. However, Gayatri Devi, one of the organisers of the satsang, said: “There is no conspiracy angle. It happened because of the irresponsible attitude of the government administration and the security guards of Baba. Baba is also a culprit because the devotees wanted to touch him but he had asked his bodyguards to keep them at bay. He ran away while devotees were crushing each other.”

Some more women have come forward in the last two days to claim that Pal was a pervert. “He hires young women who give him bath. He tells them that he is god and can do anything to them. He would say that a God is free to do anything with his devotees,” a woman of Mainpuri, who didn’t want to be named, told reporters there.