HC directs state to file detailed report on status of probe

A single-judge bench of justice Ujjal Bhuyan heard, through video-conference, a PIL filed by a Delhi-based lawyer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the high court’s supervision in the case.

The government lawyer informed the court that 101 people had been arrested in the case, while some police personnel, who were present at the time of the incident, were suspended for allowing the mob to assemble despite the lockdown.

While the Maharashtra government has ordered probe a probe by the state CID, the plea sought the probe to be transferred to the CBI. Government pleader, Priyabhushan Kakade, submitted that the state had already set up an impartial inquiry by appointing persons from outside Palghar so that there was no interference by the local persons.

After hearing the submissions, Justice Bhuyan issued notices to authorities and asked them to file a detailed response within two weeks.

On April 16 night, three men, including two ascetics and a driver were lynched by a mob in Palghar district on suspicion of being child-kidnappers and organ harvesters. The three men were driving to a funeral in Surat when a group of villagers in Gadchinchle, a tribal village in a remote part of Palghar, stopped their car and attacked them with stones, logs, and axes.