VHP reiterates CBI probe demand in Palghar lynching case

New Delhi, Aug 29: Anguished over the slow pace of investigation in the lynching of two sadhus and their driver at Gadchinchle village in Palghar district of Maharashtra, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the incident.

Central Working President of VHP Adv. Alok Kumar urged the Supreme Court to direct the CBI to probe the case of the killing of two sadhus – Mahant Kalpvrukshgiri (70) and Mahant Sushil Giri (35) and their drive Nilesh Telgade (30) at Gadchinchle village in Palghar district.

The three hapless men in saffron were brutally thrashed to death by an irate mob laced with sticks, stones, and bricks on the night of April 16, 2020, when they were proceeding towards Gujarat through this area. The mob mistook them to be child-lifters and thrashed them to death in the presence of the police personnel who played mute spectators to the event.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tried to underplay the incident by stating that the incident happened due to ‘misunderstanding’. Later, the state government arrested over 100 accused but could not file the charge sheet against them in the court. Most of the accused were released on bail for want of sufficient evidence of their involvement in the act.

Adv. Alok Kumar also appealed to the state government to investigate the role of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the highest body of Catholic Churches and organizations and the CPI(M) as both are opposed to development and Hindutva.

He said that both these organizations have poisoned the minds of the local janjati people against the Hindutva philosophy and painted the saffron-clad people as thieves, child lifters, and kidney sellers. They have, with their vicious propaganda against the sadhus, polluted the minds of the local tribal people, Alok Kumar said calling for an exhaustive investigation into their activities and programs.

The VHP Working President said that killing of sadhus was an insult of high-intensity inflicted on the Hindu Samaj and the perpetrators of the crime should be given capital punishment, he demanded.

Akhara Parishad demands CBI probe: Meanwhile, the Akhara Parishad has taken a serious view of the inordinate delay in the Palghar lynching case and demanded CBI probe into the matter to bring the culprits to book at the earliest.

Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the highest organization of the sadhus and sants, has forcefully demanded CBI investigation into the Palghar lynching case. President of the Akhara Parishad Mahant Narendra Giri said that as the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe in Sushant Singh Rajput case due to lackluster handling of the case by the Maharashtra Police, it should give orders for the CBI investigation into the Palghar lynching case which is lying idle for the past five and half months.

Raising doubts over the intention of the Maharashtra Government the Akhara Parishad demanded Central Agency probe into the case. The Parishad decided that soon a team of Sadhus and Sants will visit Palghar and call handing over the case to the Central Agency. If required the Parishad will move the court, Mahant Narendra Giri said.