The brutal lynching of Swami Kalpvriksha Giri, Sushil Giri and their driver in Palghar, Maharashtra has shocked the nation out of its wits. To help the family of the driver Nilesh Telwade, a fundraising campaign has been launched. Now Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon has supported the campaign to extend help to the family of deceased Palghar lynching victim Nilesh Telwade and appealed all to contribute to the campaign.
Uploading a video of the deceased driver Nilesh Telwade’s mother, brother, wife and both daughters and sharing the link of a website where one can donate, Raveena Tandon tweeted: “A fundraiser for the 29 yr old driver who was lynched along with Hindu sadhus. He leaves behind two little girls, please do your bit and help this family.”
The fundraising has been launched by social activist Ritu Rathaur with a goal to raise Rs 30 lakh. According to the fundraising website, the campaign has already collected Rs 27.40 lakh for the driver’s family.
Twentynine-year-old Nilesh, a driver by profession, was lynched along with two sadhus by a mob of over 200 people in Maharashtra”s Palghar last week. Nilesh Telwade’s untimely death has left his family including his wife and two little daughters in a helpless condition.
Palghar Sadhus lynched
The blood-curdling incident happened on 16th April 2020 in Palghar, Maharashtra. Two Sadhus, 70-year-old Kalpavrishka Giri Maharaj and 35-year-old Sushil Giri Maharaj along with their driver 30-year-old Nilesh Telgade associated with the Juna Akhara and were on their way from Mumbai to Gujarat to give Samadhi to another Sadhu.
Owing to the rumours child abduction and organ harvesting when the Maruti Eeco, the Two Sadhus were travelling in drove past Gadchinchle around 8 pm on April 16, the men of Gadchinchle, Divshi, Dabhadi, Talavli and Rudana were ready, with torchlights and bamboo sticks. The Eeco was stopped barely 1 km from Gadchinchle, at a lockdown barricade manned by guards from Dadra-Nagar Haveli, and turned back. It was then the wild and frenzied crowd of over more than 100 people attacked them. The villagers deemed them as thieves and started attacking them. The police claim that their team which had rushed to the spot to rescue the 70-year-old man also came under the attack of the violent mob.
Horrifying visuals of the Palghar lynching incident where a mob of over 100 people killed two Sadhus and their driver even as the Police stood there as mute spectators, just letting the barbaric act unfold, had gone viral on the social media.
People of the Sadhu community say that this village is tribals dominated and most of them are Christians while some are Muslims. Some even say that the police, out of fear of the tribals, handed over the Sadhus to the mob which later beat up those Sadhus to death with sticks. Reportedly, when the tribals of a particular religion started beating up the Sadhus, the police did not intervene.
