Man’s body found in Alwar, family blames cow vigilantes

ALWAR/JAIPUR: COPS ARE PROBING TWO CASES — OF BODY FOUND ON TRACKS & DAMAGED VAN WITH 6 COWS,

ONE OF THEM DEAD

A group of men have claimed that the body of a 35-year-old man found on railway tracks in Rajasthan’s Alwar was that of their relative’s and alleged that he was shot dead by cow vigilantes for transporting cattle, triggering tension in the region.

Police, however, said they were investigating two different cases — that of the man’s body found on tracks in Ramgarh area on Friday, and that of a badlydamaged pickup van with five cows and a dead one found about 15 km away in Fahadi village of Govind Garh area on the same day — and refused to draw connections between the two.

Maulana Haneef, a social worker, said the body belonged to Umar Mohammed, a dairy farmer who along with Tahir Khan and Jabba were taking their pet cows to Ghat Mika village from Bharatpur on Friday night when some people opened fire on them near Govindgarh, killing Mohammad on the spot.

Tahir Khan suffered a bullet wound and was taken to a hospital in Ferozepur in Haryana while Jabba was not traceable, he said.

Jamshed Khan, village head of Tuleda, who is leading the Meo community in a sit-in outside the local hospital mortuary, said VHP workers were behind the shooting, although it was a matter of investigation as to how Mohammed’s body was found on rail tracks, far from the place of incident. “The Meo community won’t accept the corpse until the perpetrators are brought to justice. We will be sitting on dharna outside the hospital,” he said.