Suraj Pal, famously known as Bhole Baba among his followers, has collected assets worth Rs. 100 crores for the past two decades.
This revelation comes around the time, when already an investigation is going on into Hathras stampede tragedy.
Bhole Baba also possesses a huge network of 24 ashrams, a fleet of luxury cars and has a five-star ashram, which looks like a palace. The land on which it was constructed costs Rs. 4 crores.
As per HT, Bhole Baba stays in Mainpuri Ashram, which was constructed on 21 bighas of land. Within this estate, six rooms are solely reserved for his wife and him.
Currently, his organization Shri Narayan Hari Sakar Charitable Trust manages its own ashrams via its subsidiary trusts across the region.
What’s notable is, that one board of his ashram mentioned, that he doesn’t take any donation, however this claim is inconsistent, as names of the donors are written all over ashram walls. These donations usually consist of 100 bags of cement to vehicles and cash for ashram construction. Reports NDTV.
Meanwhile on Tuesday afternoon, this tragic incident of stampede took place at ‘Satsang’ which was organized by Bhole Baba and his organization in Phulrai village in UP’s Hathras.
As a result, it caused the death of 121 people especially women and children. According to police officials, around 2.5 lakh followers gathered for the satsang. But the space was designed to accommodate only 80,000 people.
When Bhole Baba was leaving from the event, the crowd ran behind to gather the dust from his convoy, believing they will get blessings.
While trying to control the crowd, the volunteers and those responsible for the security tried to manage the people. Thus, causing some people to fall around embankment. But unfortunately, they were squeezed by the crowd. Thus, causing stampede as people started running.
In the aftermath of this incident, Bhole Baba gave its condolences to the family of the victims and held ‘anti-social elements’ responsible for this tragedy.
Currently, around six people have been detained for hathras stampede, but in the FIR, Bhole Baba has not been named but the police hasn’t dismissed the option of taking him into custody and said, that its’s too early to comment on his role.