What the Alwar lynching case is all about

The incident took place on Saturday when as many as 16 people were allegedly transporting 36 bovine animals illegally in six pick up vans.

New Delhi/ Jaipur, April 7: The lynching of a Muslim man by gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) in Alwar in Rajasthan snowballed into a political row on Thursday.

55-year-old Pehlu Khan, his sons Arif (22) and Irshad (25) and two others were brutally thrashed in Behror on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway, on suspicions they were smuggling cows. Khan succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.

The three men were arrested under Section 302 (dealing with murder) of the Indian Penal Code were remanded to police custody for a day by an Alwar court.

"We had produced the accused Vipin Yadav (19), Ravindra Yadav (30) of Behror and Kalu Ram (44) of Ratanpura at a local court which sent them for a day's police remand," Alwar SP Rahul Prakash told a news agency, adding that teams have fanned out in the hunt for the other accused.

Rajasthan government's reaction

The state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said it was "alright" if some people caught those who were illegally transporting animals but maintainaimed the five men were thrashed in the presence of police and demanded action against the force personnel.

Rajasthan police filed an FIR against the victims?

As per a report published inScroll, Rajasthan police allegedly filed an FIR against the victims of Alwar lynching.

The report says that a man named Damodar Singh Gurjar charged Khan and his sons Irshad and Arif under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995, on Sunday.

Gurjar, a bystander of the incident, was driving through Alwar highway at around 7.30 pm.

In the FIR, Gurjar had claimed that three men had no documents to prove where the cows were from and that they were being taken from Rajasthan to Haryana for slaughter.

Two hours later, Alwar police also filed an FIR against an unidentified mob, that thrashed Khan and four others.

Meanwhile, Khan's sons have maintained that they were not carrying the required receipts to prove that they had purchased the cows for their dairy farm in Haryana.

BJP reaction

As lynching case genereated heat in Parliament, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said it was a very sensitive issue, but "no such incident has happened, the way the matter is being presented here."

"A message should not be sent out that the House supports cow slaughter," he said, and added that "the state government has refuted (the allegations). We do not justify hooliganism".
Naqvi later said action was being taken against the accused and that he was in no way condoning the violence.

Defending the Rajasthan government, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it has taken cognisance of the incident and action as per law would be taken.

Congress reaction

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, saying there is no place in the country for those disagreeing with them and that tragedies of huge proportion occur when government "abdicates responsibility".

Talking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi charged that the prime minister is propagating a vision where only one idea will prevail.

In a series of tweets, Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Rajasthan government for the "brutal and senseless attack" in Alwar.
"When Government abdicates responsibility and allows lynch mobs to rule, tragedies of immense proportion follow. Shocking breakdown of law and order in Alwar," he said.

He said all right thinking Indians must condemn this "blind brutality" and hoped the state government will take strict action against those responsible for the "senseless attack".

Gandhi said, "We expect Government to take strict action against those responsible for this brutal and senseless attack."

What happened on April 1 night?

The incident took place on Saturday when as many as 16 people were allegedly transporting 36 bovine animals illegally in six pick up vans.

They were on their way towards Haryana from Jaipur when the vigilantes intercepted two of their vehicles in Behror on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway.

Pehlu Khan, his sons Aarif and Irshad were in the first van, while two more persons Ajmat (28) and Sharif (24) were in the second. All of them were attacked and their vans damaged.

The remaining vans were stopped by the police in which 11 people were found and arrested under relevant sections of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, ASI of Behror police station Vikram Singh said.

The five men who were beaten were admitted to a district hospital where Pehlu Khan died on Monday night.

Following Khan's death, a case of murder was registered against six persons namely Om Yadav, Hukamchand Yadav, Naveen Sharma, Sudhir Yadav, Rahul Saini and Jagmal, while 200 other "unidentified" people were listed as accused.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)