Don't politicise Palghar mob lynching incident: NCP to BJP

Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil on Monday asked the BJP not to politicise the Palghar lynching incident in which three persons were beaten to death by a mob apparently on suspicion that they were thieves.

Referring to a tweet of BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, Patil, a Cabinet minister in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state, said the NCP had no involvement into the incident.

In his tweet, Patra shared one of the videos of the Palghar lynching and asked people of Maharashtra to identify a person seen in it.

Replying to Patra, Patil tweeted, "Stop misleading. Gadchinchale Gram Panchayat in Palghar is ruled by BJP and the Sarpanch Chitra Chaudhari was present at the time of incidence. NCP has no involvement in the incident. A party worker had gone to venue on the police request. Stop politicizing the issue".

The state government has already ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident that took place on the night of April 16 when three Mumbai residents who were on their way to Surat in Gujarat in a car were lynched by villagers in Palghar district on the suspicion that they were thieves/ child- lifters.

The Congress has accused the BJP of trying to give communal colour to the incident, as two of the three deceased are believed to be seers.

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah called up Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and said there was no communal angle to the mob lynching incident.

Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant also accused the BJP of playing "communal politics" to derive a political mileage from the incident.