No trace of SUV in CCTV footage, say police
A day after six witnesses in the Pehlu Khan lynching case alleged that they were fired upon by unidentified men in a black SUV, the Alwar police said no such vehicle was spotted in the CCTV cameras at Neemrana toll booth or at nearby locations.
“No Scorpio (the SUV) crossed the toll booth between 10 minutes before the alleged attack and 15 minutes after it,” said Kushal Singh, the deputy superintendent of police of Neemrana.
“We took the six (witnesses) separately to the spot (where the alleged attack took place) and found difference in their (respective) versions. There are disparities in the spot where they alleged the firing took place. The difference is 100 metres to 300 metres,” the police officer said.
Singh, however, added that the police were waiting for information about call details and cell phone locations to verify the claims of six witnesses, which include Pehlu Khan’s two sons, Irshad and Arif.
The six were travelling Saturday to the court of additional district judge in Behror to depose. They said some men in a black Scorpio, which did not have a registration number, signalled them to stop and, when they didn’t, began shooting at them.
Lawyer Asad Hayat, who was in the vehicle carrying the witnesses from Haryana’s Nuh district, said, “We didn’t stop our vehicle as the SUV did not have a number plate. The vehicle came near and the men started abusing us, telling us to stop immediately. Then they overtook us and fired at us.” He said they took a U-turn to escape the shooters.
Hayat and others then drove to meet the Alwar superintendent of police to report the firing. Singh said that “no bullet shell was found near the site and no shopkeeper or hotel staff in the area heard or saw the firing”.
“So far their statement made in their FIR have not been verified. But the police are still waiting for technical information,” he said.
The witnesses had on Saturday said that they have “no faith in the Neemrana police” — the reason why they didn’t report the alleged attack on them at the Neemrana police station and drove straight to the SP’s office.
The relatives and other witnesses have demanded that the case be transferred to Alwar or Tijara court.
Pehlu Khan, 55, a dairy farmer from Haryana, was attacked by a mob in Behror on April 1, 2017, when he was transporting cows he had purchased from a cattle fair in Jaipur to his village in Haryana. Khan succumbed to his injuries two days later.
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