Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday paid tribute to the sadhus who were lynched by a mob in Maharashtra's Palghar on the night of April 16.
Taking to Twitter, Harsh Vardhan wrote in Hindi, "Lighting a lamp in the name of the immortal souls of Palghar." The Health Minister said that he paid his tributes to the sadhus by lighting lamps in their honour.
BJP Mahila Morcha's National Incharge of Social Media Priti Gandhi said that she was lighting a diya in order to register her satvik protest. She wrote, "Lighting a diya to register my satvik protest against the brutal mob lynching of two pious Hindu Sadhus in the presence of Palghar police. Also questioning the inaction of Maharashtra govt in bringing the culprits to book."
Political commentator Shefali Vaidya said that she was lighting the lamps for dharma, for Hindu Sadhus lynched in Palghar, for Sadhus killed in UP, for every Hindu Sadhu who died defending Dharma "from nagasadhus who fought Aurangzeb to Swami Shraddhananda to Swami Laxmanananda to Kalpavriksh Giri, Sushil Giri, Sadhu Jagandas n Sevadas," she wrote.
Others on Twitter also joined them. Here are a few tweets:
The Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha and Vishwa Hindu Parishad had earlier made an appeal for a Silent Protest on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 to condemn the lynching of sadhus at Palghar.
Earlier, on the night of April 16, two sadhus and a driver, who were on their way to Silvassa, were lynched by residents in Gadchinchle village in Palghar on the suspicion that they were thieves.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had released the names of 101 people, including nine juveniles, arrested in connection with the Palghar mob lynching case. He went on to say that all the 101 were arrested within eight hours of the incident and none of them was a Muslim.
The Criminal Investigation Department of the Maharashtra Police on Wednesday has taken over the investigation into the case.