Former union minister Uma Bharti has asked Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to register FIR against police personnel who did not save sadhus from mob lynching in Palghar, Maharashtra. The BJP leader who wrote the letter to Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said she is observing day-long fast and will also ask others to observe it.
The leader demanded a time-bound impartial inquiry into lynching of two sadhus in Palghar in presence of police personnel last week amid rumours that they were child kidnappers.
She said policemen should have saved sadhus. But instead of saving them, they handed over the sadhus to the mob. A case should be registered against policemen under Section 302 of IPC. She said she will visit the spot after lockdown and pray for departed souls. Bharti further said it is CM’s responsibility to punish the police personnel and others involved in the crime.
Three people including two sadhus were travelling from Mumbai to Surat in a Maruti Eco car to attend funeral of their guru on Thursday when they were stopped at Gujarat border and asked to return. But they didn’t go back and instead took a route through interior of a village near Palghar. Once they reached the spot, people came out on road, attacked the car suspecting them to be child lifters.
The mob comprising villagers pelted stones on the car and overturned it. A forest official called up police who reached the spot. The police tried to shift victims in the police car. The mob attacked police car and overpowered police personnel. The three men were brutally attacked with sticks, rods and stones leaving them dead. Police took them to hospital whether were declared brought dead. The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and their car driver Nilesh Telgade (30).
