With the arrest of two more sevadars of Bhole Baba, the total arrests reached 11, including the main accused Madhukar, in the Hathras stampede incident, which claimed 121 lives on July 2, said Superintendent of Police Nipun Agarwal here on Monday.
The SP said both the Sevadars were nabbed from Hathras railway station late Sunday night when they were about to board a train. Sevadars — Durvesh ( 42) and Dalveer(25) — are natives of Mainpuri.
SP Agarwal also said both of them were present at the stampede site at the time of the incident and were working as sevadars. They were among the uniformed staff who tried to push and stop the crowd that had gathered to worship Baba. When people died in the stampede, they fled the scene and were hiding in the district since the very day of the accident.
Initially six people were caught, while on Friday and on Saturday three people including the main accused were arrested.
The Hathras SP said that police teams were engaged in the arrest, search and raid operations of the accused.
Meanwhile , Bharatiya Kisan Union( BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait reached Hathras today and met with the family members of the victims and expressed his condolences on the unfortunate incident that took place in village Phulrai Mughalgarhi of Sikandrarao area.
Addressing reporters, Rakesh Tikait said taking action against the sevadars would not yield any purpose. “What these families need most is financial help and Rs 50 lakh compensation should be given to the kin of each deceased,” he said.
After meeting the family members of the deceased, Tikait said whatever happened at Sikandra Rao, it was an accident.