Juna Akhada demands high-level probe into mob lynching in Maharashtra
Binay Singh
Varanasi: Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhada, headquartered at Bada Hanuman Ghat, Varanasi, expressed deep anguish over the brutal lynching of two sadhus in Maharastra in presence of police.
The international president of Akhada Mahant Prem Giri has written a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray demanding a high-level probe into the matter and stringent action against the culprits. In his letter, he said that sadhus Sant Kalpavrikshgiri (70) and Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) with driver Nilesh Telgade were on their way to Gujarat to attend the funeral rites of their guru, Mahant Ramagiri. The police remained mute spectators to the sadhus’ killing, he alleged wondering why the police did not open fire.
The gruesome incident occurred in Palghar district of Maharashtra on 16 April. The incident remained out of the public glare until 19 April when videos of the lynching surfaced on the social media. The videos show an aged man clad in saffron being escorted by a cop out of a building. A crowd wielding sticks is waiting outside. As the aged man comes out, looking scared and bleeding on the head, the crowd takes him away and begins to beat him mercilessly. The video shows no intervention by the cop.
The police have reportedly registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
