The Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday stayed the induction of Kashinath Choudhary, a leader from Palghar who had been accused by the party of being involved in the 2020 lynching of two monks, The Indian Express reported.

The move came hours after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis defended the decision to bring Choudhary into the party.

“The case has been fully investigated,” The Times of India quoted Fadnavis as saying. “Local party workers said they looked at all information and only thereafter was the decision taken [to induct Choudhary].”

BJP Spokesperson Navnath Ban said that Choudhary was not named as an accused in any chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is why he was inducted into the party, the newspaper reported

The 2020 lynching had taken place in Gadchinchle, a tribal village in a remote part of Palghar. Two monks and their driver were travelling to a funeral in Surat when a mob, acting on rumours that they were child kidnappers and organ harvesters, stopped their car and attacked them with stones, logs and axes.

The incident had taken place amid a spate of similar lynchings in the country triggered by misinformation and WhatsApp rumours.

The case had triggered a political row in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party, then in Opposition, had demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, while the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government had accused the party of politicising the incident. A total of 251 persons were arrested and 15 juveniles were detained in the case. Choudhary was not among them.

At the time, Choudhary was a member of the undivided Nationalist Congress Party.

On Monday, after the BJP inducted Choudhary into the party, the Opposition criticised the move. Rohit Pawar, MLA from the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, accused the BJP of double standards, calling the party a “washing machine”.

Washing machine is a term Opposition leaders use to suggest that cases against political figures are pursued when they are in the Opposition but are put on hold once they join the BJP.

“The mantra of the new BJP is to not follow any ethics and only aim for power,” Rohit Pawar said in a social media post. “Had it not been the case, how come the party welcomed an individual whom it had accused of lynching a monk? Whoever faces allegations becomes clean when he comes to you, like a washing machine.”

Responding to Pawar, Fadnavis said that Choudhary had earlier belonged to parties now criticising the BJP, The Indian Express reported.

“Until he was with them, no allegations were made. Today, when he joined us, allegations have begun,” the chief minister was quoted as saying.

He added that the case had been investigated and “several things are now out in public”.

However, later on Monday, Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan announced that Choudhary’s induction had been put on hold.

The party added that official investigation records show his name does not appear in any first information report or chargesheet, and that the local unit had considered this before moving ahead, The Indian Express reported.

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