Guwahati: A tragic devotional (Satsang) programme that has claimed at least 116 lives of whom mostly are women and children was conducted by religious preacher Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba alias Surajpal Singh, a former Uttar Pradesh Police Constable.
The self-acclaimed ‘Baba’ left his service in the police 18 years ago to become a religious preacher.
According to reports during his service with the UP police, the ‘Baba’ aka Surajpal was posed across 12 police stations and was also part of the state’s intelligence unit.
It has been learnt that the ‘Baba’ voluntarily took retirement from the police service and changed his name to Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba and started conducting satsangs across locations in western Uttar Pradesh.
Soon he enhanced his religious followers and they spread to states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
The ‘Baba’ belongs to the Jatav community and his followers are primarily from the SC/ST and OBC communities.
The ‘Baba’ is not new to controversy and during the COVID-19 time in 2022, he conducted a Satsang in Farrukabad in Uttar Pradesh where permission was given for only 50 devotees to attend.
But, more than 50,000 people came for the event and it became a massive headache for the administration and an FIR was lodged against the organizers.
The most interesting part is unlike other religious preachers, this ‘Baba’ likes to remain low-key and doesn’t believe in flaunting himself on social media.
Moreover, he also doesn’t wear the usual saffron colour attire but can be seen wearing a white-clad Kurta-pyjama.
In most of the Satsangs, the ‘Baba’ is accompanied by his wife and according to reports he lives in a posh ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Patiyali area in Kasganj.
The Sansangs are mostly conducted on a Tuesday which is known to be the day of ‘Bajrangbali.’ All these events are organized by his devotees who are also called ‘sevadars’
The incident in Hathras on Tuesday which has claimed 116 lives happened because as soon as the event got over, people started to leave but were stopped by the ‘sevadars.’ The scorching heat meant that people wanted to leave in a hurry but according to reports the organizers wanted to leave first and this led to a situation of stampede.
According to reports more than one lakh people attended the event in Hathras and the question now arises was there permission given for so many devotees to attend the event?
If not who will take the responsibility for the tragic loss of so many lives and that too of women and children?
The ‘Baba’ has a next event lined up from July 4 to July 11 in Agra and organisers are in full swing to prepare for that.
Presently, the ‘Baba’ has absconded after this Hathras tragedy and the police teams are looking to find him.