Bhole Baba stays absent amid grieving victim’s kin

Kasganj (UP): Tens of thousands of his dedicated followers would attend his ‘satsang’ in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states, but on Wednesday controversial preacher Bhole Baba who equated himself to God in his sermons chose not to make a public appearance as families of over 100 people who died in the stampede at his congregation in Hathras mourned their loss.

The self-styled godman, who is called Baba Narayan Hari and Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, is not named in the list of the accused in the FIR filed in the incident though his name is in the complaint.

Over two decades after he quit the police department and became a religious preacher, Bhole Baba is presiding over several ashrams, the biggest of them in Mainpuri which was surrounded by police on Wednesday though it was not clear whether he was inside.

“I go to temples, gurdwara, mosques and churches. I reach wherever I am called from,” he says in one of the videos of his sermons and claims is an incarnation of God.

A preliminary inquiry report said chaos - caused after the followers were pushed by the godman’s security - and a “slippery slope” resulted in the stampede in Hathras on Tuesday.

Two congregations of Bhole Baba in this district have been cancelled after the stampede incident in Hathras. One of the ‘Satsang Sabhas’ was supposed to be held from July 4 to 11 in Saiyan and the other from July 13 to 23 in Shastripuram.