IT News
Mumbai, April 26
While Maharashtra Government has directed state CID to investigate the incident of mob lynching on the night of 16 April in Palghar in which three persons were killed, three petitions have been filed in Bombay High Court seeking transfer of case from CID to other central agencies.
BJP has already expressed doubts about the investigation by CID and has demanded that the matter be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). At the same time a Supreme Court lawyer Alok Shrivastava, has filed a PIL seeking an investigation by the CBI or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the case.
Another lawyer Aditya Mishra, has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court seeking a judicial commission enquiry or an investigation under the supervision of a retired justice of the High Court in the Palghar lynching case. The petition also seeks “appropriate compensation to the victim’s family members or nearest kith and kin for the loss of life”.
The PIL also seeks that an FIR be registered against the ‘errant police officers for their involvement in the offence who were present when the violent mob attacked the unarmed men’. It also puts an onus on the state intelligence department saying that it failed to identify that there were so many people who were guarding the area at night because of an unfounded rumour in the district. The intelligence department should have known about it, but it failed to take steps to prohibit instances as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court, the PIL said.
The PIL alleged that “the Palghar incident is not a sudden incident of killing. It is a conspiracy specifically against one sect and the costume or the outfit of the victim would have caused people to kill them.” Videos of the incident have gone viral in which two victims can be seen wearing the outfits of sadhus, while the third was their driver.
Yet another writ petition filed by advocate, Ghanshyam Upadhyay has sought transfer of investigation from Maharashtra CID to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Many of the accused are “Hindus by birth” but many such persons are atheist by philosophy or are attracted to Naxalism. This is an extremely serious case, the petitioner has stated.
Three people were lynched at Gadchinchle village in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. These three, according to police reports, were trying to cross the border to Gujarat during lockdown.
The villagers stopped the car as the area was infested with rumours about a gang of kidnappers and thieves. A mob of over a hundred then lynched the three. They were rushed to hospital but were declared dead on arrival.
110 people including 9 juveniles were arrested in the case while two policemen from local police station were suspended. The case was transferred to the CID by the state government. Since many people alleged that there was a communal angle to the mob lynching, the Maharashtra government released the names of all the accused to say that they are all Hindus just as the victims.
