R’sthan HC quashes FIR against Pehlu and sons
JAIPUR:The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday quashed the first information report (FIR) and charge sheet against Pehlu Khan and his two sons Irshad and Arif on charges of cattle smuggling, Khan’s lawyer Kapil Gupta said.
The FIR was lodged in April 2017 and the charge sheet, filed in December, 2018. Soon after the charge sheet was filed, the Rajasthan government filed an application in court asking the court not to take cognizance of it.
Still, a court took cognisance of it in May, provoking outrage from many quarters. Khan, a dairy farmer, was lynched two years ago.
An Alwar court in on August 14 acquitted six persons accused of lynching Khan two years ago, giving the accused “benefit of doubt”. The Rajasthan government has challenged the acquittal in the high court. A special investigation team formed by the state government has found several loopholes in the investigations conducted by Alwar police.
Khan’s sons filed a petition against the FIR and chargesheet. This was heard by a single bench of Justice Pankaj Bhandari.
“The court said the FIR and the charge-sheet are an abuse of the process of law. The three were charged under sections 5, 8 and 9 of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act, which is related to transport of cattle for slaughter. The court said the cows were milch and the calves were oneyear-old and two-years-old, so it cannot be presumed that they were being taken for slaughter,” Gupta said.
Public prosecutor, Ramesh Chaudhary, was not available for comments on the court order, which was not uploaded on the court’s website till late Wednesday evening.
Khan’s lawyer claimed the FIR was wrong in the first place. “They (Khan and his sons) bought cattle from a weekly market in Jaipur and got ‘ravanna’ (acknowledgment receipt) from the Jaipur Nagar Nigam (JMC). They were carrying the cattle in a pickup uncovered because they had valid documents,” he said.
However, the police charge sheet said Khan and his sons didn’t have a permit from a subdivisional magistrate (SDM), designated as the competent authority under the RBA Act, and required for transport of cattle to another state.
Khan’s family member welcomed the high court’s decision. “This is good news for us. The decision has brought smiles on the faces of the entire family,” said Irshad Khan.
Bhiwadi superintendent of police Amandeep Kapoor said that he has not received the court orders yet. “I cannot say anything right now as I have not read the orders,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma said: “All have to abide by the court order and law will take its own course.”
BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said it wasn’t right to comment on a court’s order but added that had the police done their job well in the first place, the outcome would have been on factual grounds.
THE SIT CONSTITUTED
BY THE RAJASTHAN GOVERNMENT HAS FOUND SEVERAL LOOPHOLES IN THE INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED BY THE ALWAR POLICE