Hathras stampede claims woman's life, family searches for her missing five-year-old son

Hathras (UP): “It’s only the poor who meet this fate, not the rich,” says Rajkumari Devi as she sits in an ambulance besides the body of her sister-in-law Ruby who died in the Hathras stampede.

Rajkumari, who came here along with her husband from Unnao district, is yet to come to terms with the loss and also worried about Ruby’s five-year-old son, who is missing.

“We are yet to find him. More of our family members are on their way to Hathras,” she said, sitting outside the mortuary of the government hospital here, around 400 km away from home.

Asked if she had any demands from the government, Rajkumari told PTI: “What do we say now. There’s nothing (to ask for). It’s only the poor who meets this fate, not the rich.”

Ruby, 35, and her minor son were among around 60 people who had come for ‘satsang’ conducted by ‘baba’ Narayan Hari, who is also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba.

“She was married to a family in Buxar area of Unnao. I live in Lalganj area of Raebareli. My daughter had come to my home and together we came for the satsang,” Chhedi Lal, 65, told PTI.

“There were around 60 people with us and we came in two buses,” he said, intermittently breaking into tears as he sat next to his daughter’s body in the ambulance.

Ruby has left behind two daughters and a son. The boy, who accompanied her to the religious congregation, is missing since the stampede broke out.

“The men and the women were sitting separately at the congregation. Baba came around 12.30 pm and left in about an hour and that’s when the stampede broke out,” Chhedi Lal said.

“It was overcrowded. It took me some time to gather my bearings before I could make a phone call to her. I called her but couldn’t get through,” he said.

“From Tuesday afternoon I started looking for her, going from one place to another. I was unaware what happened to her and her son. I reached this hospital in the morning today only to find my daughter dead and my grandson missing,” he added.

Chhedi Lal said some of their relatives have already reached Hathras while some more are on their way.

“The bus we came in dropped me in Sikandra Rau yesterday and all others who came with us left,” he said.

Asked about the government announcing compensation for the victims’ kins, the father said, “My daughter is gone now.”

A stampede at a religious congregation 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.

The stampede took place as the ‘satsang’ here ended. Some accounts said people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher’s car, triggering the stampede.

Over 2.5 lakh devotees had gathered in the Hathras district’s Phulrai village for the ‘satsang’.