The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) Bhiwandi on Friday granted bail to nine of the 11 tribals, accused in the Palghar lynching case, after the state criminal investigation department (CID) failed to file the final report within the stipulated 90 days.
The parents of the nine minors, through their lawyer, sought bail for them on the ground that the CID had no evidence against them, hence the minors were in illegal detention. The CID was unable to gather any evidence against the minors in the lynching and subsequent mob violence case. Hence, the presiding officer of the JJB granted them bail.
On April 16, Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushilgiri Maharaj, 35, and Nilesh Telgade, 30, were killed when a mob of locals attacked them at Gadhchinchale, approximately 140 kilometres from Mumbai. The trio was on their way to Surat and Telgade had been driving the car. Five police personnel were also injured in the attack. According to CID, the lynching was caused by rumours that were circulated using Whatsapp, which warned against a group of organ and child traffickers passing through the area. The gathered mob had mistaken the two travellers and their driver to be the traffickers.
Earlier last week,10 accused, against whom the charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated 90 days, were granted default bail by the Dahanu sessions court. They will be released on a personal surety bond of ₹30,000 each, and are likely to walk out of prison this week.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier last week,10 accused, against whom the charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated 90 days, were granted default bail by the Dahanu sessions court. They will be released on a personal surety bond of ₹30,000 each, and are likely to walk out of prison this week.
{{/usCountry}}The state CID took over the probe from the Kasa police and had arrested 11 minors, aged between 12 to 17 years. Nine of them were arrested on April 18, while two others were nabbed a few weeks later. They were all sent to the Bhiwandi Children Remand Home by the Dahanu court.
The CID had strong evidence against two minors and had filed a final report against them with the JJB on August 7.
Earlier, the Dahanu court judicial magistrate MV Jawale had granted default bail to the 28 accused, as the CID is yet to collect evidence against them. “We had the right to apply for default bail, as it was a clear case of illegal detention and all the accused were in judicial custody. They were lodged in Thane, Taloja, Palghar, Boisar and Wada jails, for more than 90 days,” said Amrut Adhikari, counsel for the accused.
“However, only 10 accused will be released on bail as the other 18 accused are named in the third charge sheet, which includes names of 47 accused, filed by the CID on August 6,” said Adhikari.
So far 226 witnesses have been examined and 808 suspects were detained.