A Thane Special Court on Thursday granted bail to 54 tribals arrested in connection with the lynching of two Sadhus and their driver by an irate mob near Kasa town in Maharashtra’s Palghar district in April this year.
Special district court judge P P Jadhav released 54 accused on bail against a surety bond of Rs 15,000 each.
Those granted bail included eight persons who were arrested immediately after the shocking crime that took place on April 16 this year. The remaining 46 were those who were arrested subsequently by the State CID during the course of the investigations in the case.
Advocates Amrut Adhikari and Atul Patil, who appeared before the court for the accused, argued that their clients had no role to play in the incident and had been arrested merely on grounds of suspicion.
While Special public prosecutor Satish Maneshinde appeared for the prosecution, Advocate PN Ojha appeared for the family of the deceased sadhus.
The special court will hear the bail applications of the other accused on December 5.
Earlier this month, the court had granted bail to four accused, including a man and his two sons, in the case.
Of the 366 accused in the case, 28 adults and 9 juveniles were released on a default bail as the CID charge sheet did not specify their exact involvement in the crime owing to lack of evidence.
On July 16, this year, the state CID filed a comprehensive charge-sheets against the accused before a Dahanu court in connection with the April 16, 2020 Palghar lynching incident.
In its charge sheet – running into 4955 pages -- filed before the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Dahanu in Palghar district, the CID sleuths named 126 accused in connection with the incident that took place on the night of April 16.
The investigation team, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) Vijay Pawar, filed the charge-sheet after examining 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused.
It may be recalled that on the night of April 16, three persons 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 Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and driver Nilesh Telgade (30) were travelling to Surat. Of them one was the diver, while two are residents of Kandivli in north Mumbai.
The place where the incident took place is approximately 120 km from Mumbai.
In their charge-sheet, the investigators have said that the incident had taken place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area during the lockdown. The villagers allegedly suspected the three deceased to be child-lifters.
The accused arrested in connection with the incident have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty and relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the Epidemic Diseases Act (since lockdown was in force during the incident), the Maharashtra Police Act and the Maharashtra Damage to Public Property (Prevention) Act.