PALGHAR DEATHS: SC POSER TO COPS

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra Police to place on record within two weeks the second supplementary charge sheet filed in the case of alleged lynching of three persons, including two sadhus, in Palghar district last April and posted the matter for further hearing on March 12. The bench was responding to the Maharashtra Government's counsel referring to the second charge sheet filed in the case, in which 18 delinquent police persons have been punished for dereliction of duty following a probe, some of them dismissed and some compulsorily retired. The court was hearing petitions, including one filed by the seers of Hardwar and Varanasi belonging to Panch Dashban Juna Akhara and relatives of the killed seers, demanding a separate probe by the CBI and the NIA into the alleged lynching as they were not satisfied with the "biased" police investigation. The three victims from Kandivali were travelling in a car to attend a funeral in Surat in Gujarat amid the COVID-19-induced nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob.