A repeat of the Palghar sadhu massacre incident was narrowly avoided in Sangli. Mistaking it for a gang of thieves abducting children, four sadhus were brutally beaten. The incident took place at Lavanga in Jat taluka of Sangli. 

In the police investigation, it has become clear that the beating was due to a misunderstanding. The incident took place at Lavanga village in Jat tehsil when the four men hailing from Uttar Pradesh were heading towards the temple town of Pandharpur from Bijapur in Karnataka in a car.

Four sadhus from Varanasi had gone to Karnataka for Devdarshan. They had halted at a temple in the village on Monday. After completing Devdarshan, sadhus were going to Bijapur via Lavanga. At that time, the sadhu stopped the car on the road and asked a young man for the direction of Bijapur road. The young man had seen a video of a sadhu mentioned in Kannada as a gang of thieves who abduct children. The sadhus asked the young man about the road. 

Due to the viral video, the young man reported this matter to the village as he suspected that it was a gang that was carrying the child lifting. It is also said that people of the native village mostly talk in Kannada and sadhus were from UP and didn't know Kannada or Marathi which caused the suspicion to grow. This led some locals to suspect that they were part of criminal gangs which abduct children.

"There was an argument. It escalated quickly and the sadhus were allegedly beaten up with sticks by locals," the official said.

All four sadhus were dragged from the car and beaten severely. A video of these sadhus being beaten with sticks and belts has come to light. This happened because the crowd did not listen to the information about identity cards and Aadhaar cards. Meanwhile, the Umdi police immediately rushed to the spot and rescued all four sadhus from the clutches of the angry mob. Therefore, a repeat of the Palghar sadhu massacre incident has been narrowly avoided.

A police team reached the spot and found the sadhus were members of an 'akhada' in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

Maharashtra BJP MLA Ram Kadam condemned the incident and said the state government will not tolerate such "misbehavior" with the sadhus, reports ndtv.com. Strict action will be taken against the accused, he said in a video message. "In the sadhus killing case in Palghar, then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's government meted out injustice to them. But the current Maharashtra government will not allow any injustice against any sadhu," he said referring to the 2020 incident.

Sadhus, however, lodged no complaint over the incident even as its video went viral

The sadhus (religious ascetics), however, lodged no complaint over the incident which took place on Tuesday, even as its video went viral, reports PTI.

A case has been registered against a total of 25 people of Lavanga villageSangli Sadhu lynching case. Seven of them have been arrested so far. Among those arrested are the sarpanch's son and a former sarpanch. After the beating, Sadhu refused to file a complaint. But it has come to light that Sadhu left for the next journey saying that God will punish those who beat him. Videos of sadhus being beaten went viral on social media. After that, action has been taken by the police. In this case, a case has been registered against 25 people of Lavanga village. The police have arrested seven of them.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena called the incident "unfortunate" and sought to know how many BJP leaders will visit Sangli. Terming the assault as an attempt to murder the sadhus, spokesperson Anand Dube said the government must clarify if it is with the Hindus or stop pretending that they are "Hinduvadi".

"While the government claims to be pro-Hindu and that it protects Hindus, sadhus are being assaulted in Sangli. It was easy to level allegations when we were in power - that our government was anti-Hindu. The government must take cognizance and take stern action against the accused," he said.

The Shinde government in Maharashtra was under pressure to act on the incident as the matter became viral. The state DGP also talked to local police in Sangli in this regard.

A mob in Maharashtra’s Palghar district had lynched two Sadhus of Juna Akhara and their 30-year-old driver on April 16, 2020. They were on their way to Surat, Gujarat when they were lynched by a hysterical crowd of more than 100 individuals. The cops were present at the incident, but they did nothing to stop the mob or save the sadhus.

References:

hindupost.in