Three police officers who were suspended for failing to take adequate measures to save three men lynched by a mob in Maharashtra’s Palghar on April 16 were fired, a police spokesman said on Monday. Sachin Navadkar, a spokesman for the Palghar police, said the three officers were Assistant Police Inspector Anandrao Kale, Assistant Inspector Ravi Salunkhe and Agent Naresh Dhodi. Salunkhe, 57, and Dhodi, 45, were mandatorily retired, while Kale, 43, was fired with immediate effect, Navadkar said.
The killing of the two saffron-robed men and their driver in April this year had sparked national outrage after videos showed police officers heading to safety inside the police station and leaving the three men to At the mercy of hundreds of people who suspected that the three were thieves.
Kalpvrush Giri, 70, Sushil Giri, 35, and driver Nilesh Telgade, 30, were pulled from their vehicle and beaten by mobs in the village of Gadhchinchale, about 110 km from Palghar. The seers belonged to Juna Akhara, based in Varanasi, and they were on their way to attend the last rites of their guru Mahant Shri Ram Giri in Surat.
The three sacked police officers are among the five suspended after the Uddhav Thackeray-led government was targeted by the opposition for the conduct of police personnel. Union Interior Minister Amit Shah had also spoken with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to advise him to order an investigation.
The Maharashtra government transferred all personnel stationed at the Kasa Police Station shortly thereafter and overnight, brought in 47 staff members from other parts of the district. When Maharashtra Interior Minister Anil Deshmukh arrived a month later on a visit in May, he removed the district police chief, Gaurav Singh. Singh, an IPS officer, was placed on mandatory hold and has yet to be assigned a new assignment.
The investigation into the lynching of the three victims was turned over to the Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department. Interior Minister Deshmukh had released a list of 101 people arrested for the violence, triggering a second round of back and forth with the opposition after Congress claimed those arrested included local BJP officials.
The CID, which initially analyzed the role of 824 people for the violence, had arrested 165 tribal people, including 11 minors for the three deaths. Of these, 10 men and 9 minors have been released on bail since the CID did not charge them within the stipulated 90 days.
Police produced two 11,000-page charge sheets in early July. On August 6, the CID presented its third statement of charges against 47 people arrested for assaulting a police team that had come to investigate the crime on May 13. This time, the police had opened fire on the protesters to force them to retreat.
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