In a belated fallout of the much-discussed Palghar lynching incident in which three persons, including two Sadhus, were beaten to death, the Maharashtra Government on Saturday shunted out Palghar’s Deputy Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh and replaced him with Dattatreya T Shinde in his place.
More than a month after the incident sparked a major political controversy in the country, the Shiv Sena-led MVA Government decided to transfer Palgharf’s DSP Singh – who had earlier on May 7 been sent on “compulsory leave” – out of his post. He has not been given any fresh posting so far.
Shinde, who has succeeded Singh as Palghar’s new DSP, was earlier the Managing Director of the MahaVitaran, one of the state electricity undertakings.
As part of a major reshuffle undertaken after the lynching incident, the state government had earlier suspended five police officials were suspended last month, while it had transferred 35 constables to different places within the district.
It may be recalled that on the night of April 16, 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.
After the incident, thee Kasa police had registered three FIRs in connection with the lynching and assault on policemen.
All the accused had been arrested a day after the ghastly crime.
In the first FIR, the police had charged 110 accused with murder under IPC Section 302. The court sent them to judicial custody in this case.
In the second FIR, the 110 accused were booked under IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) and 353 (deterring government servant from performing his duty) for assaulting cops and damaging their vehicle.