Ten held for lynching man in Chittorgarh

JAIPUR: Ten people have been arrested for allegedly lynching a man in Chittorgarh district on the suspicion of smuggling cattle, police said Tuesday.

The 25-year-old man was beaten to death and another seriously injured, when a mob attacked them in Chittorgarh on Sunday night, accusing them of smuggling cattle. The two -Babu Bhil and Pintu Bhil -picked up three oxen from Begun town in Chittorgarh and were driving towards their village in Madhya Pradesh when they were intercepted near Bhilkhanda by a group of locals wielding sticks. Babu died in the attack and Pintu was injured and later hospitalised, police said.

“A case has been registered against 19 people, of whom 10 have been arrested. Efforts are on to arrest the rest,” said Begun circle officer Rajendra Singh.

He said the arrested are local villagers, who after interrogation told the police that some people informed them that cows were being smuggled. They then started chasing the pick-up jeep. After the vehicle was stopped, a crowd of 20-25 people gathered and started beating the two.

“Though the postmortem report is awaited, it seems the victim (Babu) died after getting hit on private parts,” Singh said, the injured is recovering.

The officer said Pintu could not produce any document to prove the purchase of oxen, so the seller was contacted who verified the purchase.

Rajasthan was rocked by a mob lynching incident in 2017 when a 55-year-old dairy farmer named Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by a mob near Behror in Alwar district on the JaipurDelhi national highway. Khan was transporting cows to his hometown Nuh in Haryana after buying them at a cattle fair in Jaipur. The mob waylaid Khan and his son and accused them of smuggling cattle even though he produced papers to prove that the consignment was legal. Khan died at a private hospital two days later.

In 2019, the new Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot introduced an anti-mob lynching law in the form of the Rajasthan Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019. Under it, lynching offences were to be tried by a sessions court and be cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.

According to the new law, a person who commits an act of lynching, which causes the death of the victim, will face rigorous life imprisonment and a fine of ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh. In case of grievous injuries, the punishment will be jail up to 10 years and a fine of ₹25,000 to ₹3 lakh.