A three-member team of the Judicial Commission, which is investigating the case of 121 deaths in a stampede at the satsang of religious leader Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba in Hathras on July 2, could not find any video evidence of the incident during its two-day stay here.
The team reached here on Saturday morning and after recording statements of local people and eyewitnesses of the accident, left for Lucknow on Sunday late evening.
The Judicial Commission team includes former Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava, former IAS officer Hemant Rao and former IPS officer Bhavesh Kumar Singh. They have to submit the report in two months.
However during the on-spot inquiry and meeting with the eyewitnesses, they could not find any video footage of the incident . Though some similar videos are available which show some people passing by in vehicles on GT Road, capturing the crowd. Apart from this, no eyewitness video evidence has been found.
Sources said here on Monday that the main reason for no video evidence being available was that people were not allowed to take mobile cameras during Baba’s event. For this reason, even the police administration was not allowed to go inside.
Though a video has definitely surfaced that Baba’s convoy has passed through the crowd at a fast pace and his bike-riding security guards are following him. But there is no video of deaths in the stampede.
Sources said a total of 34 people recorded their statements at PWD guest house. A witness said that Baba told people to take ‘charan raj’ (soil from Baba’s feet) after the satsang due to which people fell on each other to go near the Baba and a stampede broke out.
One witness in his statement recorded before the Commission said that he was going through the GT Road while coming from Etah and stopped when he saw the stampede. The women were crying. ”We picked up about 20 bodies and placed them in vehicles. There was no security arrangement or sevadars of Baba there,” he said.
He said that the people who came to the satsang told him that after the discourse, Baba told them to take the soil from his feet for their wellbeing. People kept falling in the rush to get it. Many other eyewitnesses also made similar statements.
Many people told the Judicial Commission’s members that ”if Sakar Vishwa Hari’s convoy had been taken through another route, the accident would not have taken place”. Some accused the organising committee members of not making proper arrangements. Statements of police and civil officers were recorded in this matter on Saturday night.
Before leaving, Commission’s chairman Justice ( Retd) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava on Sunday evening said the Inquiry Commission will again come to Hathras soon when victims of the incident, eyewitnesses, media persons and officials will be called again to record their statements.
On the question of taking a statement from Sakar Vishwa Hari (baba), he said, statements will be taken from everyone from whomever it would be required.