Hathras stampede: Plea filed in SC seeks appointment of expert panel to probe incident

Police personnel outside a hospital where victims of the Hathras` stampede are admitted. Pic/PTI

A plea seeking appointment of a five-member expert committee under the supervision of a retired apex court judge to probe the Hathras stampede incident was filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, reported PTI. The incident claimed 121 lives as per the latest death toll.

According to the PTI report, the plea was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari. It has also sought a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report on the July 2 incident and to initiate legal action against officials and others for their negligent conduct.

Additionally, the petition has also sought a direction to all the state governments to submit a report on the status of medical facilities available from the block/Tehsil to the district level to deal with incidents of stampede.

A stampede at a religious congregation on Tuesday killed 121 people, most of them women, as devotees suffocated to their deaths and bodies piled atop each other in the worst such tragedy in recent years.

According to the Office of the Relief Commissioner, the number of people injured in Tuesday's incident stands at 28. Of the total fatalities, 19 are yet to be identified, it said, reported PTI.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday lodged an FIR against the organisers of the religious congregation in Hathras where 121 people died in the Hathras stampede, accusing them of hiding evidence and flouting conditions with 2.5 lakh people gathering for the event in which only 80,000 were permitted, reported PTI.

However, the congregation or 'satsang' conductor Jagat Guru Saakar Vishwahari has not been named in the FIR though his name is in the complaint

The FIR alleged that the organisers hid the actual number of devotees coming to the 'satsang' while seeking permission, did not cooperate in traffic management and hid evidence after the stampede, which broke out after people gathered there stopped to collect mud from the way the baba's vehicle was passing.

The organisers sought permission for about 80,000 people for which police and administration made arrangements.

However, over 2.5 lakh people gathered in the event. By not following the conditions of the permission, GT road witnessed traffic jam and police and administration officials were working to clear it, the FIR said