Palghar lynching: Maharashtra CID files final report against 2 of 11 minors before juvenile board

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Friday filed a final report against two minors for their involvement in the April 16 lynching of two seers and their driver in a Kasa village in Palghar district.
The police have already ruled out any communal angle in the lynching and said in its two chargesheets filed last month that the murders were a fallout of rumours of child lifting gang operating in the area.
The report filed before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Bhiwandi, has held two minors guilty of offences of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, public mischief (for circulating rumours) among others. The report too states that there was no communal angle in the lynching of Chikne Maharaj Kalpvirkshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30).
Eleven minors from Gadchinchale village in Kasa were arrested in the case. They are in the Bhiwandi remand home. The juveniles are aged between 12 and 17 years.
Earlier on Monday, the CID filed the third chargesheet in the FIR number 78/2020 before the Dahanu sessions court Magistrate M V Jawale. This chargesheet deals with mob violence and has ruled out any communal angle.
The CID had on July 15 filed two chargesheets, running into around 10,000 pages, against 126 accused. The total arrest of adults was 154, of which 28 were not charged.
The third chargesheet has named 47 accused, including 18 tribals of the 28 who were not named in the earlier two chargesheets. All the 47 accused have been booked under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (deter public servant from discharge of his duties), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant in the discharge of his duty), 333 (voluntarily causing grevious hurt to deter public servant in discharge of his duty) , 336 (act to endanger human life or personal safety of others), 143, 149 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon).
The chargesheet mentions about the deputy superintendent of police (DySP), Jawhar, firing in the air to disperse the crowd on the night of the incident. The chargesheet also mentions about some of the accused (those arrested on May 13) pelting stones at the cops when the team went in search of them in the nearby jungles.
Advocate Amrut Adhikari, representing the accused men, including the juveniles said that charges are still to be framed against 10 suspects, who are in magisterial custody. He said that these accused were among the first few to be arrested after the crime took place on April 16. “The accused have been in custody since then. If charges are not framed against them, they should be released on bail,”. The 10 accused have applied for bail in the Dahanu court.
A total of 226 witnesses have been examined so far and 808 suspects were detained.