A video of a mob lynching incident in Palghar district (Maharashtra) is being shared with a communal claim that Muslims killed them because they were Sadhus. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Claim: Muslims killed Sadhus in Palghar (Maharashtra).
Fact: While it is true that three people, including sadhus, were lynched in Palghar (Maharashtra), it was not a communal incident as mentioned in the post. A group of villagers lynched three men on the suspicion that they were thieves. The Palghar Police have clarified that the accused belong to the local tribal community and there was no communal angle to the incident. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched on the internet, many news reports regarding the incident were found in the search results. In ‘The Week’ article, it can be read that Inspector Anandrao Kale (Kasa police station) said, ‘The three had come from Mumbai and their vehicle was stopped on the Dhabadi-Khanvel road near Gadchinchale village by local residents. They were pulled out of the car and attacked by villagers with stones and other objects on suspicion that they were thieves.’ They were two sadhus among the deceased. In the India Today article, it can be read that a similar incident happened in the area, a few days ago, based on the same suspicions. Also, FACTLY has contacted Palghar PRO, who has denied any communal angle to the incident. More information regarding the incident can be read here and here.
The Palghar Police tweeted that ‘till now 110 accused (of the local tribal community) have been arrested out of which 9 are juvenile.’ Also, Anil Deshmukh (Home Minister of Maharashtra) has tweeted that the accused and victims are not from different religions and asked people not to portray it as a communal incident. A ground report by ABP News on the incident can be watched here.
To sum it up, the Palghar mob lynching incident is being falsely shared as a Hindu-Muslim incident.
Did you watch our new video?
