Yogi govt downplays numbers; '79, not 30 dead' in Kumbh?

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is accused of deliberately downplaying the number of people dead in the January 29 stampede at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj. Initially, the Mahakumbh Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Vaibhav Krishna had confirmed 30 dead in the tragedy but the number is at least 79, a Newslaundry report claims. The bodies of the deceased can only be collected at the Motilal Nehru Medical College (in Prayagraj. A list from the hospital declared at least 69 were “brought dead” to them on January 29. Moreover, 10 more bodies were received from the Swaroop Rani Hospital in the city, bringing the number of deceased to 79.

A top official connected with the case confirmed that of the 69 bodies they received, 66 were handed over to the deceased’s families on February 3. Kin received the bodies and undated receipts but no postmortems were conducted despite it being a requirement. Postmortems are conducted upon the police’s official request, which was not forthcoming. As many as three, including a man and two women remain unidentified, Newslaundry said.

Of the 69 bodies, 10 were men and the rest women. Among the 66 identified corpses, most hailed from UP, 14 were from Bihar, nine from West Bengal, four from Karnataka and one from Gujarat. The bodies were being held in a large freezer that was last used for the victims of the 2013 Kumbh stampede.

10 added to list: As many as 10 more bodies from the stampede tragedy were received by Prayagraj’s Swaroop Rani Hospital. Initially, the hospital confirmed through its bulletin board that seven people were brought dead, adding that 36 had been injured. However, the list was removed on February 4.

However, the local police station’s data indicated that five were brought dead to the hospital and added six more to the list, bringing the number to 11. However, one of the victims’ time of death was from a day before the stampede, reducing the tally to 10.

Categorised as natural deaths: Some relatives of the deceased alleged they were forced to say their kin had died of natural causes, claims the Newslaundry report. One Shyam Lal Gaur and his wife from UP’s Deoria district got separated during the stampede on January 29. His wife looked for him for a few days and was joined by her son Dharmendra on February 3. They were asked to check with Swaroop Rani Hospital where they found Shyam Lal’s body, which had been brought dead on January 29 around 10 am.

The postmortem says the death was classified as natural. Something similar happened with 50-year-old Kamta Prasad who died in the stampede. His body was taken to the local sector 20 police station. The body was accompanied by his cousin Mansingh and others. Mansingh took the body in his own car for a postmortem but applied for a ‘panchnama’ to find out the cause of death. He added that cops “made him write” that Kamta Prasad “suddenly fell ill and died in the Kumbh”.