Mobocracy rules roost: Indian killed over cow
new delhi — A Muslim man was beaten to death by a mob in western India over allegations of smuggling cows, police said on Saturday, despite calls by the country’s highest court for immediate steps to stop deadly mob violence across the country.
Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and slaughtering them or eating beef is illegal or restricted across much of the country.
The mob intercepted two men on foot who were bringing two cows with them at around midnight on Friday in a forested area in Alwar district of Rajasthan state and began punching and beating them with sticks, police officer Mohan Singh said. The men were taking the dairy animals to their village in neighbouring Haryana state, he added. —
alwar — A 28-year-old man has been beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, police said on Saturday. Two persons have been arrested.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje condemned the Friday night incident in which some villagers caught and beat up Akbar Khan, suspecting him to be a cow smuggler. “The incident of alleged lynching of a person transporting bovines in Alwar district is condemnable. Strictest possible action shall be taken against the perpetrators,” Raje tweeted.
Khan, a resident of Mewat in Rajasthan, was transporting the animals to his village along with another man when they were stopped by a group of villagers near Lalawandi village in Alwar. They were brutally thrashed, the office of Additional Director General Jaipur Range, Ramgarh, received this information at 12.40am.
When the police team reached the spot they found an injured Khan lying in the mud. Two persons were standing there with two cows, ADGP Hemant Priyadarshi told the media.
Khan, 28, told the officers that he and his companion Aslam had purchased the cows from Ladpur and were on their way to their village when they were mistaken for cow smugglers and attacked. “My limbs are broken,” said Khan covered in mud before collapsing. He was immediately rushed to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
“Two main suspects are known anti-social elements and we are questioning them for more details on the incident,” said Shyam Singh, assistant superintendent of Alwar police. “The cows are with the police and the victim’s body has been sent for post-mortem,” he added.
The police in Ramgarh registered a case against unidentified persons under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. Police have arrested Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjit Singh Sardar who were found on the spot standing with bovines. Further probe is on.
It is the third such incident in Alwar since April last year when dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by a mob. Another man, Umar Mohammed, 35, also a dairy farmer was found dead near the railway tracks in Alwar in November 2017. He was also allegedly killed by vigilantes when he was transporting cows to his home in Pahari tehsil of the district.
The central and state governments came under a sharp criticism from the Supreme Court earlier this week over frequent lynching incidents.