The police and the main organiser of Hathras satsang, in which at least 121 people died in a stampede, were alerted about the possible mismanagement a day prior to the tragedy.
The eyewitness, Pappy Yadav, was himself a member of the Manav Mangal Milan Sadbhavna Samagam Committee and was given responsibility to take care of road traffic management. He claimed that he alerted Dev Prakash Madhukar, the main organiser, and local police about the mismanagement due to no proper parking facility a day before the mishap.
Notably, several other eyewitnesses also said that the road was jam packed with vehicles which narrowed the exit leading to the stampede.
I refused to do road seva (service) since they didn’t have any proper arrangement for parking and in our experience, with multiple vehicles coming, this creates chaos," said Pappy Yadav.
"I realised the issue and told Dev Prakash Madhukar, but he didn’t do anything. I also asked the local police to block one road for free flow of movement. I don’t know, but they didn’t pay heed," he added.
Pappy Yadav claimed he shifted his duty, suggesting he knew there would be mismanagement.
He further said the committee members who are hiding shouldn’t do this and should come forward either through media persons like you or come before the police.
Yadav said that a similar incident happened in Aligarh at the satsang of Narayan Sakar Hari, the self-styled godman at the centre of Hathras controversy. In the Aligarh incident, a woman had fallen in a ditch but the members of the organising committee assisted her and a tragedy was averted.
On Thursday, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested six people in connection with the stampede incident. Dev Prakash Madhukar, the 'mukhya sevadar', has been identified as the main accused in the FIR and a non-bailable warrant has been issued against him.
A reward of Rs 1 lakh has been announced for information leading to the arrest of Madhukar.
According to the police, the members of the organising committee used to keep the crowd management to themselves and did not allow the local administration to take up the job.
