A Thane Special Court on Saturday granted bail to as many 89 accused in the much-discussed Palghar lynching incident, in which two Sadhus and their driver were killed by an irate mob near Kasa town in Maharashtra’s Palghar district in April last year..
Having heard arguments by Special Public Prosecutor Satish Maneshinde and defense counsels Amrut Adhikari and Atul Patil on January 6, Special Judge S. B. Bahalkar granted bail to the 89 accused against a deposit of Rs 15,000 each.
The judge scheduled the next hearing of the case for February 15.
Earlier in their defence of the accused, counsels Amrut Adhikari and Atul Patil had told the court that the applicants had no role to play in the attack and the police had arrested them on mere suspicion. They had also questioned the validity of the three FIRS filed against them.
As many as 251 adults and 16 juveniles are being tried on various charges of rioting, attempt to murder and murder in connection with the April 16, 2020 Palghar lynching incident which created public outrage across the country.
Till date, a total of 176 accused and 11 juveniles have been granted bail while the bail applications of 36 more have been rejected.
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 had 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 last year, 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.