Cow vigilantes kill man in Alwar

ALWAR: A 31-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death on Friday night by suspected cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, where three people engaged in the cattle trade had already been killed since April last year. Two people suspected to be involved in the killing, which was condemned by political parties, have been arrested.

The incident, which triggered tension in the region, took place just four days after the Supreme Court slammed the Central and state governments for failing to prevent frequent lynchings, terming them “horrendous acts of mobocracy,” and issued a slew of directions to tackle them.

Two men identified as Rakbar Khan and Aslam, residents of Kol village in Haryana’s Mewat region, were herding two cows when they were stopped in Lalavandi village of Ramgarh tehsil in Alwar around midnight and assaulted by a group of men, the police said.

“Khan and his Aslam were going to their village on foot through Lalavdi when some people stopped them and thrashed them, accusing them of being cow smugglers,” said inspector general of police (Jaipur range) Hemant Priyadarshani .

Khan was brutally beaten but Aslam managed to escape, said Alwar’s additional superintendent of police Anil Beniwal. Some locals informed the police, which reached the spot, and found Khan lying injured in a muddy field with the two cows standing next to him.

Khan died on his way to Alwar hospital and his post-mortem examination revealed that the cause of death was internal bleeding caused by beating, police said. His father Sulamain Mev said Rakbar used to work as a labourer in a local stonemine and had left home on Friday morning with Aslam with some goats. “Police told us about his death today morning,” he said.