The four sadhus were assaulted at Lavana village in Sangli district.
Four sadhus were assaulted by a mob on the suspicion of being child lifters in Maharashtra's Sangli district on Tuesday, a video of which has gone viral. The incident occurred at Lavana village in the district. The locals were seen checking the Aadhaar card of one of the sadhus before they tried to drag him out of the car by his leg. They then assaulted him with a belt.
Six people have been arrested in this connection.
The four sadhus from Uttar Pradesh had asked a boy for direction on their way to the temple town of Pandharpur from Karnataka's Bijapur which led to the locals suspecting that they may be from a gang that kidnaps children, news agency PTI reported citing the police.
The victims had stopped at a temple in the Lavana village and the incident occurred when they were resuming their journey, the report said. The police found that the sadhus were the members of an 'akhada' in Uttar Pradesh, it said.
The police reached the spot and took the sadhus to hospital. Since they had to go visit a temple, they did not register a complaint, said Dixit Gedam, Superintendent of Police, Sangli. "The police took suo moto cognisance of the incident and registered an offence for hurt and riot. Six accused have been arrested and a search is on for the other accused," he said.
Maharashtra BJP MLA Ram Kadam condemned the incident and said the state government will not tolerate such "misbehaviour" with the sadhus. 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.
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.