Gau rakshaks in Gohana mistake student for photojournalist, stab him

THINKING HE WAS A PHOTOGRAPHER, THE GAU RAKSHAKS ASKED SHIVAM TO CLICK PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEM HANDING OVER THEIR MEMORANDUM OF DEMANDS TO THE AUTHORITIES, TO WHICH HE REFUSED AND A QUARREL BROKE OUT

ROHTAK : A BA second year student is battling for life at Apollo Hospital in Delhi after he was brutally stabbed multiple times by ‘gau rakshaks’, who, thinking that he was a journalist, got angry at him for not clicking photographs of their protest.

The incident occurred Thursday afternoon in Gohana town of Sonepat district.

The Gohana police said a group of ‘gau rakshaks’, allegedly belonging to the Gau Raksha Seva Dal, were holding a protest before the SDM and tehsildar in Gohana on Thursday, demanding that a sedition case be registered against Congress workers who celebrated a beef festival in Kerala by slaughtering a cow in public.

The second-year student, identified as Shivam, was reportedly accompanying his journalist friend to cover the protest, where he was playing with his friend’s camera.

Thinking he was a photographer, ‘gau rakshaks’ asked him to click photographs of them handing their memorandum of demands to the authorities, to which, he allegedly refused. Subsequently, a quarrel broke out between them, but the onlookers managed to defuse the situation. But, the ‘gau rakshaks’ later followed Shivam after the protest and picked up another quarrel in a market, following which, they stabbed him multiple times.

The police said Shivam was stabbed multiple times in his stomach and chest. “He was admitted to a local hospital that referred him to Delhi, considering his critical condition. They used a curly-bladed knife that inflicted serious injuries,” Gohana police station in-charge inspector Kuldeep Deswal said.

The officer said they have booked three persons under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The prime accused, identified as Mohit, 19, has been arrested while two of his accomplices are on the run.

The police officer said the Gau Raksha Seva Dal refused to take responsibility of the accused, calling them troublemakers “who join any protest”.

However, he said the FIR they have lodged mentions that the three accused were part of the Gau Raksha Seva Dal.