No objection to CBI probing Palghar lynching: Maharashtra govt to SC

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it had no objection to the Central Bureau of Investigation taking over the probe into the lynching of two Hindu monks and their driver by a mob at Palghar in 2020.

The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government had taken a stance that the Maharashtra Police were competent to handle the probe and had opposed the demand for a CBI probe. The BJP, which had been seeking a CBI probe, is now part of chief minister Eknath Shinde's government. In an affidavit filed before the SC, the Maharashtra government said it "is ready and willing to hand over the investigation ... to the CBI".

The monks and their driver were lynched in April 2020 when they were on their way to attend a funeral in Surat. The mob, it was claimed, had suspected them to be child kidnappers. Members of the Panch Dashban Juna Akhara and relatives of the two monks had moved the SC, saying they were not happy with the state's probe.


The then Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government had opposed the demand, saying that the state police had filed chargesheets in the case and that it was taking action against police personnel who were present at the time of the lynching but could not prevent it.

The BJP has welcomed the Shinde government's move.

The party had accused the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government of not safeguarding the interests of the Hindu community. In the opposition at the time, it had alleged that the Palghar sadhus would never get justice under the then Uddhav Thackeray government. It had also claimed that the then government deliberately derailed the probe to appease the Congress.