Before Uttar Pradesh Police captured Devprakash Madhukar, the primary suspect in the July 2 Hathras stampede that left 121 people dead, late last night, sources indicated that Madhukar had fled to Delhi following the tragic incident.
Late on Friday night, A P Singh, Madhukar’s attorney, declared that his client had turned himself in to the Delhi police.
Madhukar was hauled up by a Hathras police Special Operations Group (SOG) unit, an official informed PTI.
“He was brought into custody from Delhi, close to the Najafgarh area,” another Hathras police officer stated, pleading not to be identified.
Police have not yet made an official announcement on Madhukar’s arrest. Madhukar was the “mukhya sevadar” of the “satsang” where the stampede took place.
In the police report filed at the Sikandra Rao police station in Hathras regarding the event, he is the only listed culprit.
A P Singh, Madhukar’s attorney, stated via video message that his client had turned himself in while receiving treatment in Delhi.
“Devprakash Madhukar, who has been referred to as the primary organizer in the FIR in the Hathras case, was turned in today.
after calling the police, the SIT and the STF in Delhi since he was undergoing treatment here,” Singh said.
“We had promised we would not apply for anticipatory bail since we did no wrong. What is our crime? He is an engineer and a heart patient. Doctors said his condition is stable now and so we surrendered today to join the probe,” the lawyer said.
Singh said police may now record his statement or question him, but they must take into consideration his health condition and ensure that “nothing wrong happens with him”.
“We did not do anything like filing anticipatory bail or moving court which would have been viewed as an effort to save ourselves and being scared…questions were being raised about his (Madhukar) whereabouts and if he had run away,” he claimed.
Madhukar will join the probe and share information about the “anti-social elements” at the event, he added
On July 3, the Supreme Court lawyer had claimed that he also represents Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba, the self-styled godman at whose ‘satsang’ the stampede occurred, and that some “anti-social elements” were behind the tragedy.
Surajpal was ready to cooperate with the state administration and police and had sought an investigation into the entire matter, Singh had said.
Till Thursday, six people, including two women volunteers, who were members of the organising committee of Bhole Baba’s ‘satsang’, had been arrested in the case.
An FIR was lodged in the matter on July 2 under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence).
On July 3, the Uttar Pradesh government formed a three-member judicial commission headed by a retired high court judge to probe the Hathras tragedy and to look into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the stampede.