No Muslims among 101 accused for Palghar sadhu lynching: Maha Home Minister Anil Deshmukh

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that none of the 101 people who have been arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching is a Muslim. He accused the opposition of giving a communal colour over the incident.

Anil Deshmukh while addressing state via Facebook said, “A Special IG level officer in CID is investigating the matter. But I would like to mention that police arrested 101 persons within 8 hrs of the offence. We’re releasing the names of accused via WhatsApp today. None of the accused arrested in connection with the incident is a Muslim. It is unfortunate that communal politics is being played following the incident.”

Without naming anyone, he said, “Some people are seeing ‘Mungerilal ke haseen sapne’ (pipedream)…it is not the time to play politics, but fight coronavirus collectively,” reported PTI.

He later shared the entire list of the 101 arrested in the Palghar incident. Taking to Twitter, Anil Deshmukh wrote: “The list of the 101 arrested in the Palghar incident. Especially sharing for those who were trying to make this a communal issue.”

The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men – two seers and their driver – were going from Mumbai in a car towards Surat in Gujarat to attend a funeral. Their vehicle was stopped near a village in Palghar district where the three were dragged out of the car and beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters.

The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30). The Maharashtra government earlier ordered a high- level probe into the incident, and two policemen from Palghar were suspended on Monday for alleged dereliction of duty.

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