Rakbar lynching accused gets bail

JAIPUR: Second accused in the Rakbar Khan lynching case got bail in Rajasthan high court on Tuesday, said the special public prosecutor for lynching cases on Wednesday.

There are four accused in the case; the bail application of the remaining two is likely to be heard by the court on Friday.

Meanwhile, trial in the case will resume in an Alwar court on June 1.

Rakbar Khan, 28, of Kol village in Haryana’s Nuh district was allegedly beaten up by local villagers in Lalavandi village of

Rajasthan’s Alwar district on July 21, 2018, while he was shepherding two cows bought from Ladpura village with Aslam Khan. The villagers suspected them to be cow smugglers. Rakbar was declared dead when taken to government hospital by police. Aslam Khan managed to escape.

Police arrested three people – Paramjit Singh and Dharmendra Yadav and Naresh Kumar – on charges of unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt and murder the next day (July 22, 2018). Charge sheet against them was filed on September 7, 2018. The fourth accused, Vijay Moortikar, was arrested on August 22, 2019, and charges were framed against him on September 13, 2019.

After facing flak for sloppy investigation into the Pehlu Khan lynching case that led to acquittal of all six accused, the Rajasthan government appointed Ashok Kumar Sharma as special public prosecutor for lynching cases in Alwar on the day the fourth accused was arrested.

Meanwhile, Sharma said the trial will resume on June 1.

“The last hearing was on March 16. Due to the lockdown, the trial discontinued and the next date of hearing is June 1,” he said.