In his bid to “nail the lies” of the BJP about the Palghar lynching incident, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday released the list of 101 persons arrested in connection with the April 16 incident and charged that the principal Opposition party was seeing “Mungerilal ke haseen sapne” (day-dreaming) of returning to power in the state by politicising the Palghar incident.
On a day when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the State Director General of Police over the Palghar incident, the State Home Minister released a list of 101 persons arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching incident and said that there was not even one Muslim among the arrested accused.
Addressing the people across the state through Facebook, Deshmukh said: “In the list of 101 arrested accused in the Palghar incident that I am releasing today, there is not even one Muslim. When this incident was happening, some people were heard saying 'Oye Bas' ( enough stop it), people circulated the video of the incident online and misinterpreted the words as 'Shoeb Bas'. .....It is unfortunate that these words were misinterpreted and the same people tried to give a communal colour to the incident”.
“While giving communal colour, the same people also indulged in communal politics. All this is being done at a time when we are fighting a war against Coronavirus. Our entire police department, health and other departments are involved in the battle against Covid-19,” the minister said.
“This is not the time to indulge in politics. This is the time when all people should come together and fight the battle. It is unfortunate that even in this kind of a critical situation some people are trying to see Mungerilal ke haseen sapne. My request all the people is: please join us in our battle against coronavirus. We need to win this battle. I look forward to cooperation from all people,” Deshmukh said.
It may be recalled that on the night of April 16, three persons, including two Sadhus, were lynched by a 200-strong mob of villagers near Kasa town in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on suspicion that they were thieves.
The villagers first hurled stones at the van, prompting the driver to stop the vehicle. Later, they pulled three persons out of the vehicle and beat them to death in Gadhchinchale village on Dabhadi-Khanwel road, with sticks and rods.
The deceased ---identified as two Sadhus Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and driver Nilesh Telgade (30) were travelling from Mumbai to Surat, at the time of incident.
Deshmukh’s comments should be seen in the context of the efforts by several BJP leaders, including itsnational spokesperson Sambit Patra, to target the Maharashtra government and raise questions about the Palghar incident.
On Monday, Patra had put out two tweets – in one of which he had demanded answers from the NCP and CPI(M) on what were the leaders doing in the unruly crowd that indulged in inhumanly act at Palghar, alleged that the ruling alliance partners in Maharashtra were trying to put the sins of each other under the carpet and wanted to know if it was a murder or a conspiracy. He had also released the video of the incident and the people in Maharashtra could recoginise as to who were in the video.
In his response tweet, BJP’s national Secretary in-charge of Tripura and Andhra Pradesh Sunil Deodhar had said that the people in the video belonged to the NCP and CPM and he went on to identify them.
Meanwhile, acting on a complaint, the National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) India has issued a notice to the DGP, Maharashtra over mob lynching of three persons in the presence of police in Palghar district on April 16. It has called for a detailed report within four weeks including action taken against the culprits and relief, if any, granted to the next of kin of the deceased.
In its notice, the NHRC has observed: “The incident is apparently indicative of negligence by the public servants. The death of three persons in such a cruel manner by the unruly mob that too during countrywide lockdown, under extra vigil by the administration and police, amounts to gross violation of the right to life of the victims”.
“According to the complaint as well as the media reports, the victims, Sushil Giri and Kalpavriksh Giri, belonging to a sect of Sadhus, were going to attend a funeral when they along with the driver of their car were attacked by an unruly mob on suspicion that they were thieves. The video of the attack on the deceased persons went viral, on April 19, 2020, which showed that police personnel were also present when the victims were being attacked,” a National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) press release said.