Pehlu Khan named VHP and Bajrang Dal in statement to police before dying
The Muslim man who died in Rajasthan’s Alwar after being assaulted last weekend by vigilantes for transporting cows had named members of the RSSlinked Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal as the attackers in his statement to the police.
“They (the assailants) said they were members of the Bajrang Dal and VHP,” Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, told the police before he died in a hospital two days after the assault..
The FIR registered in the case and accessed by Hindustan Times on Wednesday names six people and 200 other unidentified Gau Rakshaks for the deadly assault, based on the statement of Khan while he was being treated in Behror’s Kailash Hospital.
Khan told the police he had heard the names of Om Yadav, Hukum Chand Yadav, Sudhir Yadav, Jagmal Yadav, Naveen Sharma and Rahul Saini while the attack on him and his fellow passengers unfolded.
The mob had accosted Khan and the others on the Delhi-Jaipur highway while they were transporting cows and calves on the suspicion they were being taken for slaughter.
Khan’s kin, however, say the cattle had been bought from a market for dairy purposes and they had the necessary permits to transport them.
Three of the accused named by Khan have been arrested, while three others are on the run. Interestingly, among the arrested is Ravindra Yadav, who worked as a paramedic at the same hospital where an injured Khan was admitted.
VHP’s state president Narpat Singh Shekhawat has denied that the gau rakshaks behind the attack belonged to his organisation.
The police FIR also recorded the vigilantes as saying they will beat up anyone carrying bovines through Behror.
“They took money from our pockets and tore our clothes,” Khan told the police.
Khan, his two sons and two others were transporting the cows in two vehicles when they were stopped. The mob beat up all of them but let the driver go after he told the assailants he was a Hindu.
The incident generated heat in both houses of the Parliament.
It’s a business... The gau rakshaks want money. If you pay them, they let you go. Otherwise they snatch it from you and lodge police case against you for cow smuggling. For export of bovines from Rajasthan for agricultural or dairy farming or for participation in a cattle fair, a special permit needs to be issued by the district collector. These men from Haryana didn’t have this permit.