As many as 23 persons were arrested on Monday for allegedly lynching five persons on suspicion of being child lifters at Rainpada village in Sakri tehsil of Dhule district of north Maharashtra on Sunday, even as the State Government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the victims in the incident.
After initial protests that saw them demand Rs 25 lakh each, a government job and a pucca house as compensation, the family members accepted the bodies of those killed in the tragic incident on Monday evening and transported them to their native district of Solapur in western Maharashtra.
The five lynching victims were identified as Dadarao Shankar Bhosale, Bharat Shankar Bhosale, Raju Bhosale and Bharat Malve of Khave village and Anagu Ingole of Manewadi village – both of which are located in Mangalvede tehsil of Solapur district.
The victims’ final rites will be performed on Tuesday.
Under intense pressure from various quarters, the local police took into custody 23 persons in connection with the lynching incident.
The arrested accused, many of whom hail from Rainipada village and are in the age group of 20 to 30 years, were on Monday produced before a local court which remanded them till July 6.
Confirming the arrests in the lynching incident, Dhule’s Additional Superintendent of Police Vivek Pansare said: “We have arrested 23 persons in connection with the incident. After producing them before a local court, we have sought their remand till Friday”.
Pansare said that the relatives, who had earlier insisted that they would not accept the bodies of those killed in the tragic incident unless their various demands including a hefty cash compensation, had accepted the bodies from a nearby government hospital where they had earlier been sent to for a post-mortem.
Talking to media persons, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the Rainpada lynching incident as “unfortunate”. “It is rather unfortunate that five persons came to be lynched on suspicion of being child lifters. We have already made arrests in the incidents. All those behind the incident will be dealt with sternly.. We have meanwhile announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the families of those killed in the incident”.
“This is a very serious incident. We will go to the root of the issue,” Minister of State for Home Deepak Kesarkar said.
The initial investigations by the police have revealed that the victims belonged to the Nath Gosavi nomadic tribe and they moved from village to village for alms.
The victims who were part of a larger group that had come to Dhule from Solapur and set up their camps in the outskirts of Pimpalner, a nearby village
The victims arrived at Rainpada in a tempo after they came to know of a tent-bazaar there. As soon as they alighted from the tempo, a group of villagers – suspecting them to be child lifters --attacked with sticks, stones and bricks. The villagers forcibly dragged the victims near Gram Panchayat, where they assaulted the five visitors to death in a room located next to the Panchayat’s office.
Sunday’s was not the first lynching incident witnessed in the state. Sometime last month, two persons were killed in Aurangabad district after people suspected them to be robbers. There have been reports of lynching of persons from Nandurbar, Malegaon, latur and Parbhani, where the victims suffered injuries.
Within hours after the Dhule lynching incident, a similar case was reported from the powerloom town of Malegaon in Nashik district where four persons were beaten up by villagers on suspicion of being child abductors.
“Five ppl (including a 2 yr old child) rescued from a violent mob of thousands wanting to lynch them in Malegaon. Proud of my team #MalegaonPolice that risked their own lives to save them today@Dev_Fadnavis @IPS_Association,” Additional Superintendent of Police Harssh Poddar tweeted.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s new Director General of Police Datta Padsalikar appealed to people not lend credence to rumours “which are being spread maliciously” leading to incidents of lynching in which innocent people were being killed. He asked the people to contact police once they got to hear such rumours so that the police could initiate action against those spreading rumours.
He also appealed to people not indulge in “aggressive behaviour or assault because such incidents lead to registration of criminal case.”