‘101 arrested, not a single minority member’: Maharashtra minister on lynching

The Maharashtra home minister stopped short of naming the main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but alleged that a few politicians were trying to give a communal angle to the “unfortunate incident”.

Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh has said that there is no communal angle to the April 16 Palghar lynching incident and the attack was a fallout of swirling rumours triggered by social media posts about child-lifters on the prowl in the area.

On April 16, three men --- two seers and their driver --- were dragged out of their vehicle outside Gadhchinchale village, located about 110 kilometres from Palghar, and beaten to death by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters. (HT photo)

“Not even a single member of the minority community was among the attackers. Altogether, 101 people have been arrested on charges of lynching. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has started the probe. We’ll release the list of names of all the accused soon,” Deshmukh said.

The home minister stopped short of naming the main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but alleged that a few politicians were trying to give a communal angle to the “unfortunate incident”.

“Three persons were lynched by a mob in an unfortunate incident. The deceased were pleading with their attackers. But their cries were misinterpreted because of language barriers and were erroneously thought to be seeking help from a particular community. There was no communal angle to the incident,” he said.

The BJP has attacked the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government --- a coalition of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Shiv Sena and the Congress -- over law and order. The BJP has also demanded Deshmukh’s resignation.

On April 16, three men --- two seers and their driver --- were dragged out of their vehicle outside Gadhchinchale village, located about 110 kilometres from Palghar, and beaten to death by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters. The incident occurred when the victims were going from Mumbai to Surat to attend a funeral.

The deceased were identified as Kalpavriksha Giri (70), Sushil Giri (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30). The seers belonged to Varanasi-based Juna Akhara and were on their way to attend the last rites of their guru Mahant Shri Ram Giri in Surat.