Palghar Mob Lynching: Bombay High Court Denies Bail To 4 Accused

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to four men booked in the infamous Palghar Sadhu Lynching case wherein two monks and their driver were killed by a mob which misunderstood them to be thieves.

Single-judge Justice Dr Neela Gokhale denied bail to Rajesh Dhakal Rao, Sunil @ Satya Shantaram Dalvi, Sajanya Barkya Burkud and Vinod Ramu Rao.

The judge while denying bail, considered the gravity of the offence and also the chances of tampering the evidence and winning over the witnesses by the accused.

"Taking into consideration the nature, gravity and seriousness of the offence and the circumstances of the case, and the reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with or the evidence being lost otherwise, and the Applicants not being available to face the trial without undue delay, in my view, this is not a fit case nor in the interest of justice, that the Applicants should be enlarged on bail," the judge said in the order.

The judge turned down the argument of long incarceration of nearly five years after noting that the maximum sentence for the offence alleged against the applicants is life imprisonment or death and thus, held that the incarceration undergone cannot be termed as long incarceration.

"There is no denying the fact that the liberty of an individual is precious and is to be zealously protected by the Courts. Nonetheless, such a protection cannot be absolute in every situation. The valuable right of liberty of an individual and the interest of the society in general has to be balanced. Liberty of a person accused of an offence would depend upon the exigencies of the case. It is possible that in a given situation, the collective interest of the community may outweigh the right of personal liberty of the individual concerned," the judge observed.

Notably, two Hindu seers namely, Maharaj Kalpavriksha Giri @ Chikna Baba and Sushilgiri Maharaj were lynched to death by a frenzied mob in April 2020 in Palghar. The two seers were travelling from Mumbai to Surat when their car was stopped by a mob of over 200 people. This mob then proceeded to upturn the car and pelt stones, eventually resulting in the death of both seers as well as the driver of the car.

Appearance:

Advocates Saili Dhuru and Sachin Ramrao Pawar appeared for the Applicants.

Additional Public Prosecutors Poonam Bhosale and Anuja Gotad represented the State.

Advocates Amit Munde and Jai Vohra represented the CBI.

Case Title: Rajesh Dhakal Rao vs State of Maharashtra (Bail Application 3043 of 2025)

Click Here To Read/Download Order