Maharashtra lynchings: CM announces compensation, 23 suspects held
Mumbai, July 2: With the lynching of five mendicants (bhikshus) on Sunday threatening to snowball into a controversy, the Maharashtra government on Monday announced a compensation of Rs 500,000 to the kin of each victim, and other assistance while at least 23 suspects were arrested.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis while making the announcement of compensation, appealed to the people not to get misled by rumour-mongering on social media and to approach police for help instead of taking the law in their hands.
Simultaneously, police in Dhule arrested at least 23 people in connection with the lynching of the five persons in a public place in Rainpada tribal village on Sunday afternoon, sending shockwaves across the state. They have been remanded to police custody till July 6.
All closely related, the victims hailed from Solapur district and belong to the nomadic 'Nath Gosavi'. They were identified as Dadarao Shankar Bhosale, Bharat Shankar Bhosale, Raju Bhosale and Bharat Malve of Khave village and Anagu Ingole of Manewadi village - both located in the Mangalvede tehsil of Solapur.
They were part of a larger group which had come by a state transport bus from Solapur to Dhule to set up their camps on the outskirts of Pimpalner.
When they deboarded in Rainapada village, a weekly tent-market was underway and one of them was espied speaking with a young girl.
This led to rumours that they could be child-kidnappers and a large number of villagers attacked them with sticks, stones and bricks near the Gram Panchayat office.
Earlier on Monday, their kin refused to accept the bodies but were later convinced by the Dhule Collector Rahul Rekhavar and Superintendent of Police M. Ramkumar. The bodies are en route to Solapur for the final rites, said a police official.
"What can we say.. We are poor people, and we have lost everything, even our sole breadwinners. All we want is justice for our people," said a grieving Santosh Bhosale, son of Dadarao, one of the victims.
The families have demanded a case of murder and abetment to murder be lodged against the sarpanch of Rainpada as the attack took place in the gram panchayat office and the cases be tried in a fast track court.
The opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have condemned the incident in strong words, barely two days before the upcoming Monsoon Session of the legislature due to start in Nagpur this week.
State Congress President Ashok Chavan on Monday asked "whether there is rule of law or jungle-raj in Maharashtra" and termed the incident an outcome of the government's negligence.
He said that in recent weeks there have been several such incidents across Maharashtra including Aurangabad, and in Jalna where the local BJP legislator was involved in a similar attack on some persons.
"Rumour-mongering aided by social media is creating panic among the people. They attack any unknown persons who are seriously injured or killed in the mob violence. The government must take strong action," Chavan urged.
Minister of State for Home Deepak Kesarkar, who visited the village on Monday, however said: "This is indeed a very serious issue. We shall go to the root of the issue."
This is not the first incident of lynching due to rumour-mongering in the state in the past few weeks.
At least three persons were killed in two incidents in Aurangabad and several have been injured after brutal attacks on them in Latur, Nashik, Parbhani, Jalna and Nandurbar districts.
In fact, hours after the Dhule lynching on Sunday, a similar case was reported from Malegaon in Nashik when four persons were beaten up and held captive, but police rushed and rescued them
Director General of Police Datta Padsalgikar on Monday issued a stern warning that anybody found indulging indulging in such aggressive behaviour could face murder/attempt to charges and appealed to all people not to become victims of unverified messages/rumours on social media, but report them to police for investigations and action.
Additional DGP Bipin Behari has directed all IGPs and DSPs to compile reports of lynching incidents in the state in the past couple of months for further action and to trace out such messages on social media.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
