Palghar case: SC seeks Maharashtra govt's reply on pleas for CBI, NIA probes into killings

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Centre and the Maharashtra government on a plea for a CBI probe into lynching of two Hindu saints in Palghar district on April 16, 2020.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, M R Shah and R Ramasubramanian sought a response in a writ petition filed by Mahant Shraddhanand Saraswati of Panchdasnam Juna Akhara and family members of the two deceased.

The court also admitted for consideration a related PIL by Ghanshyam Upadhyay for an NIA probe into the matter. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, in his plea, claimed the involvement of people in religious conversion.

The Maharashtra police have arrested over 100 people in the case.

In his argument, the state government counsel opposed the plea, saying the Bombay High Court was already examining the plea for the CBI probe. The bench, however, decided to further consider the issue in the second week of July.

In his brief submission, advocates Balaji Srinivasan and Lakshmi Rao, representing the family members of the victims, contended that witnesses were committing suicide in the case. We have reasons to believe that the investigation conducted by the CID was not taking its due course.

On April 16, two Hindu saints Swami Kalpvrikshya Giri (70) and his disciple Swami Sushil Giri (35) and their driver Neelesh Telghre were lynched by a mob of over 100 villagers when they were going to Surat in Gujarat for last rites of a senior seer from 'Juna Akhada'.

In the plea, the petitioners contended that the entire incident and its handling raised several questions which remained unanswered till date and those could never be answered unless the matter was investigated by "an independent, unsullen and reputed arm of the central agencies".

"Why the police persons are not being investigated, particularly when there are serious and grave allegations of their complicity with the group of persons who murdered a 73-year-old and a 35-year-old sadhu as well as a simple car driver?" they asked in their plea.

They referred to video clips, which they claimed, very categorically depicted that the police concerned might have an active role in the case, therefore to expect the CID, constituted of members belonging to the police, to conduct and conclude a fair and unbiased investigation without generating any apprehensions about its credibility and impartiality was not possible.

Notably, the top court had on May 1 asked the Maharashtra government to respond to a PIL filed by Shashank Shekhar Jha for an SIT or CBI probe into the Palghar lynching case and shifting its trial to Delhi.

In their PIL, the family members of the victim urged the Supreme Court to direct the state government to decide upon their representations of April 28 for allotment of land at the site of the murder of the revered sadhus to enable them to set up a memorial of the persons wronged and pay compensation to them.