Alwar again: Mob lynches 28-yr-old

Yash Goyal

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, July 21

Akbar Khan alias Rakbar, 28, a native of Haryana’s Ferozepur Jhirka tehsil in Nuh district, Mewat, was allegedly beaten to death in Lalaawandi village in Ramgarh, Alwar district, in the wee hours of Saturday on the suspicion of being a bovine smuggler.

  Akbar and his associate Aslam were on their way home with two cows when they were attacked  by a mob carrying lathis and sharp-edged weapons. Aslam managed to flee.  

The incident comes a little more than a year after dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was lynched by cow vigilantes in Alwar district on April 1 while he was transporting cattle to his village in Haryana. 

Alwar Additional DG Hement Priyadarshi said two suspects, Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjeet Singh, had been arrested. “Akbar’s body, covered in mud, was found in a field. A case under Sections 143, 341, 323, 302 and 34 of the IPC has been filed and the cows sent to a gaushala,” Ramgarh SHO Shubhash Chandra told The Tribune. CM Vasundhara Raje condemned the incident. “The alleged lynching of a person transporting bovines in Alwar district is condemnable. Strictest possible action shall be taken against the perpetrators,” she tweeted. State Home Minister GC Kataria said the police were verifying if the cows were being smuggled. “It not, the guilty will not be spared,” he warned.

Menace spreads 

Rajasthan

• Dairy farmer Pehlu Khan, 55, lynched on April 1 last year in Alwar  while transporting cattle to his village in Haryana 
• Umar Khan, 35, found dead near rail tracks in November last year; his family blamed cow vigilantes

Maharashtra 

• Five persons lynched by a mob in Dhule district on the suspicion of being child-lifters on July 1, 2018

Jharkhand

• Two Muslim cattle traders killed by cow vigilantes in Latehar on March 18, 2016
• Seven persons, including two brothers, returning from work beaten to death by mobs in tribal-dominated areas near Jamshedpur following rumours of gangs kidnapping children

Assam & Tripura

• On June 8, 2018, two young men from Guwahati, driving up NH-36, took a detour at Dengaon. Both lynched by a mob which mistook them for child-lifters
• Man lynched in Tripura after child-lifting rumours on WhatsApp on June 28, 2018