Woman devotee from U’khand killed in stampede at Maha Kumbh
Rudrapur, Jan 30 (PTI) A woman devotee from Kichha town in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district was among those killed in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early Wednesday.
Guddi Devi Koli (60) had gone to Prayagraj along with her younger son and daughter-in-law to take a holy dip at the Sangam Ghat on the occasion of ‘Mauni Amavasya’, one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu calendar.
She, however, got separated in the melee when the stampede occurred.
Guddi Devi’s elder son Rinku Koli, who runs a mobile phone shop in Kichha, said that his younger brother Raju and his wife kept searching for her for hours and finally got the shock of their lives when they found her dead body.
They have brought her body home and now her cremation will take place, Koli said.
Earlier on January 27, hundreds of devotees from Kichha had gone to Prayagraj in five buses for a bath in the Sangam on ‘Mauni Amavasya’. Guddi Devi was also among them.
The locals said that many people, who had gone to Prayagraj, have not yet returned.
When asked about this, SDM, Kichha, Kaustubh Mishra, said there is information about Guddi Devi’s death during the stampede in Prayagraj but till now there is no news of anyone else missing.