Three police personnel have been dismissed from service in connection with the brutal lynching of two Hindu sadhus and their driver in Palghar in Maharashtra on April 16. The Inspector General (IG) of Police, Konkan Range, on Sunday (August 30) had dismissed these police personnel which included assistant police inspector Anandrao Kale, who was in-charge of Kasa Police Station in Palghar when the incident took place, assistant sub-inspector Ravi Salunke and head constable Naresh Dhodi.
Notably, these three policemen, along with five others, had earlier been suspended after the incident.
Supreme Court pulls up the Maharashtra government
This development came after, the Supreme Court on August 6, pulled up the Maharashtra government. It questioned the state government on what action it had taken against the police personnel who handed over the two Hindu Sadhus to the violent mob, asking it to submit the charge-sheets it had filed in the case within three weeks.
The top court was hearing a petition seeking a separate investigation by the CBI and the NIA into the brutal lynching of Sadhus. The Supreme Court has also sought a response from the Maharashtra government on the petitions seeking CBI, NIA probe.
Maharashtra police rules out ‘communal angle’ in Palghar lynching
The Maharashtra Police had in July, filed two separate charge-sheets in connection with the mob lynching of two Hindu Sadhus and their driver, in which it had ruled out any ‘communal angle’ to the heinous incident.
Christian missionary groups and left-wing organisations behind the gruesome incident, CBI probe demanded
Recently, a fact-finding team blamed left-wing organizations and Christian missionary groups for the violence that led to Sadhus’s lynching in Palghar district, Maharashtra. Demanding that the central investigation agencies like NIA or CBI should be handling the Palghar mob lynching case, the team in its 149-page report, revealed how some groups are spreading hate and inciting the tribal population against the union government.
Palghar Mob Lynching incident
On April 16 2020, two Sadhus associated with the Juna Akhara, 70-year-old Kalpavrishka Giri Maharaj, and 35-year-old Sushil Giri Maharaj along with their driver 30-year-old Nilesh Telgadewere were on their way from Mumbai to Gujarat to give Samadhi to another Sadhu, when a wild and frenzied crowd of over more than 100 people attacked them at Gadakchinchale village. The villagers, who deemed them as thieves, started brutally 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.
But later videos emerged which completely debunked the claim of police. Contrary to the claims, the police personnel had allegedly handed over the Sadhus to the frenzied mob, which went on to beat them to death in front of the policemen.
Reports emerged that the killing of the Sadhus may have been intentional and politically motivated. The involvement of Christian Missionary organisations and some local NCP leaders and leftists were also suspected.
