Police ‘had tea before going to help victim’

INDIAN police yesterday began an inquiry into officers alleged to have taken a tea break instead of rushing a critically injured lynching victim to hospital.

Akbar Khan, 28, died of his injuries after being attacked by a gang of Hindu “cow vigilantes” in the district of Alwar in Rajasthan state on Friday.

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, where squads of vigilantes often roam highways inspecting livestock trucks. The murder stoked tensions in the area amid reports police stopped to have a tea break, instead of taking Khan to hospital. Police also allegedly cared for the cows first, transporting them to a bovine shelter much farther away.

“Doubts have been cast on the initial response of the local police,” state police chief OP Galhotra said in a written order seen by AFP. “A team has been constituted to look into the circumstances leading to the alleged delay.”

India’s Right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been accused of turning a blind eye to a rising number of vigilante attacks on minority Muslims in the name of cow protection. Rights groups say Hindu mobs have been emboldened under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which stormed to power in 2014.

Slaughtering cows is illegal in many Indian states, and some also require a licence for transporting them across state borders.