Alwar: Man lynched on suspicion of cow smuggling,2 held

The Alwar police on Saturday arrested two people in connection with the lynching of a 31-year-old man Akbar Khan.

Akbar was attacked by a mob in Rajasthan's Alwar district on Friday night allegedly on suspicion of cow smuggling. The victim and his friend Aslam were taking two cows to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar when around five to seven men attacked them, said Subhash Sharma, station house officer of the Ramgarh Police Station.

Police on Saturday arrested two persons identified as Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjeet Singh in connection with the lynching. While addressing media at Police Headquarters on Saturday, IG for Jaipur range, Hemant Priyadarshani said, "The police reached the spot after local villagers informed us. Around 12:45 AM in the midnight police saw that deceased Rakbar (alias Akbar) was covered with mud. Police immediately took him to a hospital where he was declared dead".

"On the basis of information provided by Naval Kishore Sharma police reached and arrested Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjit Singh Sardar, residents of Lalavandi who were standing with two cows next to the body of Akbar", Priyadarshini added.

Police said that before Akbar scummed to injuries he told the police that he and his companion Aslam were buying two cows and they were going to their village on foot through Lalavandi on foot when some locals came and thrashed them. Police are also looking for Aslam Khan who went missing after the incident. However, Akbar's father Sulaiman denied his son's connection with cow selling or smuggling.

Alwar police on Saturday lodged the FIR against two accused and unknown under section 143, 341, 323, 302 and 34 of IPC at Ramgarh Police station against the two arrested and other unidentified people.

The postmortem of the body of the deceased was conducted at Rajiv Gandhi memorial hospital in Alwar. As per the Initial report, the reason behind death is internal bleeding.

Sharp criticism by Opposition and Social groups

The Lynched has triggered reactions across the sections. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje condemned the incident, but mentioned that the victim was "transporting bovines".

"We would like to ask the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, who tweeted immediately this morning, condemning this incident, whether she has any plans to call a halt to this bloody madness as now the Gau rakshaks have tasted blood and have the support of the police and administration", Kavita Srivastava General Secretary of PUCL said.

Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot, blamed the BJP government, saying that people being killed "on suspicion" was sadly becoming a norm in BJP-ruled states. He said the Union home minister's statement in Parliament on Friday that it was the responsibility of state governments to stop incidents of mob lynching seemed even more hollow. Congress national general-secretary Ashok Gehlot called the incident horrific, saying the man was lynched despite the Supreme Court's warnings.

A day after PM's speech

Akbar Khan's killing comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged all the state governments to take strict action against those involved in mob lynching incidents and punish them to curb the menace happening in the country for the last few months.

Incidentally four days ago the Supreme Court had asked the legislature to consider enacting a new penal provision to deal with mob violence and provide deterrent punishment to offenders. No citizen can take the law into their hands and the government must act, said the Supreme Court on Tuesday. "In case of fear and anarchy, the state has to act positively," said Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

Read: Akbar's last footprints, washed away by monsoon rain