Palghar lynching: Congress links two accused in mob to BJP, saffron party denies claim

Maharashtra Congress on Thursday alleged that two of the 101 accused arrested in the Palghar lynching case are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office-bearers and the

Maharashtra Congress on Thursday alleged that two of the 101 accused arrested in the Palghar lynching case are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office-bearers and the saffron party was trying to communalise the episode for the political gain.

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The party also raised questions over the Centre’s alleged reluctance on enacting independent law on mob lynching despite a Supreme Court directive on the same.

Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant, in a press conference on Thursday, produced documents to establish the claim that two of the Palghar lynching case accused are BJP office-bearers.

Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday released the list of 101 accused arrested in Palghar mob lynching case. Sawant said that accused number 61 and 65 on the list, Ishwar Nikole and Bhau Sathe respectively, are local office-bearers of the BJP and were featured on party’s official Facebook page of Dahanu circle.

“The two accused were felicitated by the BJP’s local office-bearers in a programme organised during Fadnavis government’s rule in the state. We have released the pictures of the programme establishing the identity. Not only the two but even few more accused in the Palghar lynching belong to the saffron party. The party has not taken any action against the accused, ” Sawant said.

Sawant also questioned why the central government is sitting on the Supreme Court directives of enactment of a special law against mob lynching.

“ Former chief justices of India, Dipak Misra in July 2018 and Ranjan Gogoi in July 2019 had directed the central government to enact the special law. Why is the Centre sitting on these directives for over two years? Union home minister, who was quick enough the call Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray after the Palghar lynching, has done nothing to enact this law,” he said.

The BJP’s spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, said that the accused do not belong to their party. “Sawant’s claims are false and the Facebook page he is talking about could be fake. In fact, our allegation is that the police have booked the people who were not involved in to save the actual accused. How can there be 101 arrests when the number of people seen in the videos is not more than 50. Workers from Nationalist Congress Party and Left parties were present when the incident took place, but they have not been booked by the police,” he said.

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

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

The gram panchayat of the village is with the BJP.