Temple Stampede: Did Police Loot, Dump Bodies In River?

By Saurabh Shukla / Ratnagarh

Shocking accounts from survivors of the Ratangarh stampede have raised doubts on the role played by the local police administration during and immediately after the tragedy. Several eyewitnesses claimed that policemen actually dumped pilgrims’ bodies into the river, in an alleged bid to mask the death toll.  

While the official death toll stands at 115, several people have been reported missing and divers are currently looking for more bodies. 
It was learnt that some policemen “stole money and valuables from the bodies” before tossing them off the bridge. 

The report quotes a survivor named Asish, 15, who told INN Live that policemen pushed him off the bridge when he went to claim the body of his 5-year-old brother.  

“I fell on my knees and begged the cops to allow me to take my brother’s body home. But they pushed me off the bridge, saying that I too should die,” he was quoted as saying. 

Ashish revealed as saying policemen searched the pockets of the dead before tossing bodies downstream. “When I told them my brother had died, they said that ‘now your brother is dead, why should you live on?” he is described to INN Live.  

Even as the state government ordered a judicial inquiry into the Ratangarh stampede, senior Congress leader DIgvijay Singh, also from Madhya Pradesh, took on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. 

“Reason for Ratangarh Mata disaster? Police was charging Rs. 200 from each tractor and allowing in no traffic zone. Good Governance in MP?” Singh tweeted. 

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who addressed a huge rally in Bhopal recently, also tweeted that he had a word with his MP counterpart. “Saddened by unfortunate stampede at Ratangarh temple. Spoke to Shivraj ji and expressed my condolences. Prayers with victims families,” Modi tweeted.

The death toll from the Ratangarh temple stampede has risen further, with the latest estimates putting it at 115. However even this number could rise further. “The toll could touch 120. We are yet to recover bodies from the river,” Chambal range DIG D K Arya told INN Live.