Self-styled godman Bhole Baba’s lawyer AP Singh alleged on Sunday that witnesses told him some people opened cans containing a poisonous substance in the crowd during the July 2 Hathras ‘satsang’, triggering the stampede.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Singh also alleged a conspiracy, which he attributed to Bhole Baba’s “rising popularity”, behind the stampede.
The stampede after the ‘satsang’ of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras left 121 people, mostly women, dead.