Sadhus attacked in Maharashtra's Palghar again, temple robbed; one accused arrested

The attack comes around six weeks after two Sadhus in from Palghar were lynched by a mob.

In another incident of attack on Sadhus (saints) in Maharashtra's Palghar, three unidentified men barged into Jagrut Mahadev Mandir and Ashram at Balivali in Vasai and attacked the temple's priests in the early hours of Thursday (May 28).

The attackers fled with valuables worth Rs 6,800.

According to the police, the trio attacked Shankaranand Dayanand Saraswati (54) and his co-worker Shyamsingh Somsingh Thakur (60), the two priests of Jagrit Mahadev Temple.

The police managed to arrest one of the three accused on Thursday and recovered Rs 2,000 from him. However, the other two are still on the run. Further investigations in the matter are underway.

A case has been registered against the accused under sections 394 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant sections, senior officer of Virar police station, Suresh Varade informed.

On April 16, two sadhus and a driver were travelling from Mumbai's Kandivali towards Surat in Gujarat in a car to attend a funeral when they were lynched by a mob, consisting mostly of 70-80 local villagers, under suspicion that they were thieves and kidnappers.

The villagers also attacked the police personnel when they tried to stop the rampaging mob and some policemen also sustained injuries in the incident.

So far, at least 133 people have been arrested in the case, including nine minors.