MUMBAI, Oct. 17 -- Five years after the 2020 Palghar mob lynching, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently re-registered earlier police cases to conduct a fresh investigation into the mob violence that resulted in the killing of two seers and their driver. The CBI acted after the state government gave its consent on May 22 this year, and has registered three separate FIRs in the case. The lynching happened on April 16, 2020 at Palghar's Gadchinchle village and the three cases were initially registered by Palghar's Kasa police station in April, 2020. The district police's probes were later handed over to the Maharashtra CID. The state CID, which submitted three chargesheets in the cases in July-August 2020 to a Dahanu sessions court, had concluded in its probe that the lynching was not pre-meditated but fuelled by rumours that a gang of thieves and child-lifters was on the loose. As per its findings, the seers, who were on their way to attend a funeral in Surat, had asked the driver to avoid main roads to escape police roadblocks erected to enforce the Covid-19 lockdown. The unusual route, which took them through forested areas, aroused the villagers' suspicion and they were attacked. The 400-500-strong mob also attacked the police team that rushed to the spot to rescue the seers. The victims were stoned to death in a police vehicle, which was overturned by the mob. One of the three CBI FIRs is based on a Kasa police case registered on April 16-17, 2020. It names nine accused and details how the mob assaulted and attempted to kill the seers, their driver and three public servants. According to Katare, one of the seers told him that they lived in Nashik and were going to attend the funeral of his Guru. "The crowd stopped them at Gadchinchale, saying they were not saints but thieves," the FIR read. "Soon, a violent crowd of 400-500 people gathered there." The second CBI FIR is based on the Kasa police's FIR of April 18, 2020, registered on a complaint from API Kale. Kale's complaint added that the police heard "a large crowd had overturned a white car on the road and were beating up three people". Someone from the mob incited others by saying, "Don't release the two people in the government vehicle and the one outside the vehicle, give them to us, we will take care of them," according to the FIR. The third CBI FIR is based on on a complaint by the then sub-divisional police officer B Sonawane, Palghar, who said that when a police team was sent to nab the accused persons, they were allegedly attacked by the crowd which "tried to kill" them. In order to protect the policemen and make the crowd disperse, a senior police officer fired a round from his service pistol. Far from stopping the attack, someone from the crowd allegedly shouted, "Let's crush these policemen with stones...and kill them."...