Maharashtra: Sadhus thrashed over suspicion of being child-lifters in Sangli

Maharashtra: Four sadhus or religious ascetics were allegedly assaulted by a mob in Maharashtra's Sangli district on Tuesday on suspicion of being child-lifters, police said.

The sadhus, however, lodged no complaint over the incident even though its video went viral.

The incident took place at Lavanga village in Jat tehsil when the four men who hail from Uttar Pradesh were heading towards the temple town of Pandharpur from Bijapur in Karnataka in a car.

They had halted at a temple in the village on Monday. While resuming the journey on Tuesday, they asked a boy for directions, said a police official.

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 the locals," the official said.

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

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