3rd charge sheet filed in Palghar lynching case

The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department, which is probing the Palghar mob lynching incident, has filed a third charge sheet in the case in a local court, officials said on Saturday.

In a related development, the CID also filed a charge sheet against two minor accused in the case in a juvenile court at Bhiwandi on Friday, they said.

Last month, the CID had filed two charge sheets, one running into 4,955 pages and another of 5,921 pages, in a court in Dahanu taluka in Palghar district.

As many as 154 people have been arrested and 11 juveniles detained in connection with the incident, police have said.

In all, three FIRs related to murder, armed rioting and other charges were registered in connection with the incident, in which two seers and their driver were lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in Palghar on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat (Gujarat) to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. "The CID Crime has now filed a charge sheet in the third FIR, which was registered at Kasa Police Station in Palghar. The case relates to a police officer opening fire," an official said on Saturday.

The charge sheet was submitted in a Palghar court, he said. Another official said, "The state police is preparing a report about the inquiry against the police personnel and action taken against them, as the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Maharashtra government to bring on record those details too."

The apex court had on Thursday asked the state to apprise it of action taken against the errant cops in the case.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy had also asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine them. Meanwhile, a top official of the state CID said that the charge sheet against two minor accused was filed at the Bhiwandi juvenile court on Friday.