More than 120 people were killed at a religious gathering in UP’s Hathras on Tuesday.
New Delhi:
Devprakash Madhukar, the main accused in the July 2 Hathras stampede which claimed 121 lives, has been taken into custody by Uttar Pradesh Police after he surrendered in Delhi, his lawyer claimed on Friday night.
Madhukar, the ‘mukhya sevadar’ of the ‘satsang’ where the stampede occurred, is the only accused named in the FIR lodged at Sikandra Rao police station in Hathras in connection with the incident.
In a video message, Madhukar’s lawyer A P Singh claimed that his client had surrendered in Delhi, where he was undergoing treatment.
“Today, we have surrendered Devprakash Madhukar, who was called the main organiser in the FIR in the Hathras case, after calling the police, the SIT and the STF in Delhi since he was undergoing treatment here,” Mr 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.
Mr Singh said police may now record his statement or question him but must take into consideration his health condition and ensure that “nothing wrong happens with him”.
Recently, the Supreme Court lawyer had claimed that he represents Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba, the self-styled godman at whose ‘satsang’ the stampede occurred.
Uttar Pradesh Police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to Madhukar’s arrest.
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.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)