Cong, CPI(M), JD(U), Omar ask questions

Jaipur:political parties on Thursday expressed their anguish at the police investigation in the Pehlu Khan lynching case that gave a clean chit to six people named by Khan as his assailants before he died in a hospital in April this year.

Reacting to a HT report on Thursday that quoted police as saying that the six were not present at the site where Khan was assaulted while he was transporting cows for his farm in Haryana, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot said the farmer’s family should be given justice.

“The government should ensure justice for the family. The chief minister also promised the same but according to Khan’s family, this does not look like justice,” he said. Congress leader from Maharashtra Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted: “We will take up Pehlu Khan case before SC which is hearing our Gau Raksha PIL on 22nd September and seek justice too.”

In Jaipur for the Sanjhi Virasat Bachao convention by opposition parties, JD(U) leader Ali Anwar Ansari and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury also reacted to the development. “Pehlu Khan named six people in his FIR. Now efforts are being made to remove them, sidelining the report of the intelligence bureau,” Ansari said. Yechury said, “It seems no one killed Pehlu Khan or maybe, he did not die,” adding that though Khan mentioned the names in his statement, no action was taken against the culprits.

“How foolish to expect anyone would be found guilty of murder! #Pehlukhan committed suicide & staged the lynching to make a dramatic exit,” Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah tweeted.