Nobody killed Pehlu Khan, all six accused in lynching case acquitted

A district court in Jaipur on Wednesday acquitted six men accused of lynching Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar on April 1, 2017 on allegations of cattle smuggling for slaughter.

Fifty-five-year-old Pehlu Khan was attacked by alleged cow vigilantes in Alwar on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway, when he and five others were transporting cattle from a weekly market in Jaipur to their village in Nuh, Haryana. Khan died in a hospital on April 3, 2017.

Khan’s family had alleged injustice and protested state government’s move to charge sheet him for cow smuggling.

Also read: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot says Pehlu Khan not named in charge sheet

On the basis of Khan’s statement, the police registered cases against suspects Om Yadav (45), Hukum Chand Yadav (44), Sudhir Yadav (45), Jagmal Jagmal Yadav (73), Naveen Sharma (48) and Rahul Saini (24) and more than 200 unnamed people.

After an investigation by the crime branch of the state police, the six were given a clean chit and charge sheet was filed against six others – Vipin Yadav, Kalu Ram, Dayanand Yadav, Ravindra Kumar, Yogesh Kumar, Bheem Rathi and Deepak alias Golu Yadav. These six men were charged with murder, rioting, destruction of property, wrongful restraint and theft.

The state police presented the charge sheet against these six men, all of whom were released on bail between July and September 2017.

Also read: Why India is showing increased thirst for instant mob justice

The Rajasthan police also registered a case against Khan and his sons, 25-year-old Irshad and 22-year-old Arif, for alleged cow smuggling on April 1, 2017. The charge sheet in the case was filed on May 29 this year.