Altogether 9 people including the prime accused in the Hathras stampede incident of July 2 have been arrested so far.
While six sevadars were arrested on Thursday, three more were taken in custody since last night. Police would take in remand the accused for further investigation.
The Uttar Pradesh Police was investigating political link with the accused and the money they received for holding such big satsangs.
A total of 121 people were killed in the stampede during the satsang of Bhole Baba in village Phulrai-Mughalgarhi under Sikandrarau police station on Tuesday last.
Superintendent of Police ( SP), Hathras, Nipun Agarwal in a press conference here on Saturday said that the main accused Devprakash Madhukar and two other accused Ram Prakash Shakya and Sanju Yadav have been arrested.
During interrogation, accused Dev Prakash Madhukar revealed that he was playing two roles in this incident, one as the main organizer and the other as a fund raiser.
A case was registered against the main organizer Dev Prakash Madhukar and other persons at Sikandra Rao police station under Section 105/110/126(2)/223/238 of the Indian Justice Code. Six accused have already been arrested in the case. A reward of Rs 1 lakh was announced on the main accused Dev Prakash Madhukar.
The SP said Dev Prakash Madhukar was arrested from Najafgarh, Delhi late in the evening on July 5 while police arrested accused Ram Prakash Shakya from Kailora intersection and accused Sanju Yadav from Gopalpur Kachori, Sikandrarau today.
The SP said that on interrogation, Dev Prakash Madhukar said that he is working on contract as Junior Engineer in MNREGA since 2010 in Etah. He has been associated with this organization for years. Organizes programs and collects funds for the organization.
“Sevadars and committee members working under Dev Prakash Madhukar direction had full responsibility for barricading, entry gates, exit gates, seating arrangements, parking and other facilities around the satsang pandal. Accused Dev Prakash and other servants prevented the police administration from any kind of interference inside the venue,” he said
“There his sevadars were looking after all the arrangements in the form of commandos in different types of costumes. There persons were prevented from doing videography or photography. The arrangements were not made properly and many conditions of the permission letter of the administration were violated and the traffic system was affected ” the SP disclosed.
Nipun Agarwal said it also became clear from the interrogation that no effort was made by them to control the crowd and everyone fled from the spot. Six sevadars have been arrested, who were responsible for the chaos which led to this incident and loss of many lives.
“During interrogation, it was also revealed that Madhukar and his sevadars had taken out the preacher’s car from the crowd, despite being aware of the fact that at the time of taking out the vehicle from the crowd, there could have been a terrible accident due to a stampede for Charanraj( foot soil),” he added.
The SP said that during the interrogation of accused Devprakash Madhukar, it was also revealed that some political parties had contacted him some time ago.
Regarding fund collection, a thorough investigation is being done to see whether such programs and other resources are funded by any political party. From the inquiries so far, it seems that some political party is associated with them for their political and personal gains. All bank accounts, movable and immovable properties, money trail etc. linked to accused Dev Prakash Madhukar are being investigated, he said.