Explainer: Akhlaq & other lynching cases

ON October 15, the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh moved a sessions court in Gautam Buddha Nagar to withdraw all charges against 10 people accused of lynching 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq on suspicion of possession of beef on September 28, 2015. The attack reportedly followed an announcement in a temple that Akhlaq had stored beef in his refrigerator. He was allegedly dragged out of his house and beaten to death while his son, Danish, sustained injuries.

The court proceedings have been going on for a decade. The trial court is yet to issue an order on the UP government’s application under Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for withdrawal from prosecution. This section allows a Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of a case to withdraw from the trial with the court’s approval. The next hearing is scheduled for December 12.

Under the corresponding Section 360 in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that supersedes CrPC, “no court shall allow such withdrawal without giving an opportunity of being heard to the victim”.

The Akhlaq case resulted in outrage across the country, putting the spotlight on cow vigilantes and their violent ways, while specifically targeting Muslims.

Mustain killing

On March 5, 2016, Mustain, 27, a resident of Saharanpur, left for Shahbad (Kurukshetra) to buy a buffalo. When he did not return home, a DDR was filed in Saharanpur on March 12. When his father, Tahir Hasan, inquired at the Shahbad police station, he was allegedly told they would soon release his son. However, later, the father was threatened. As he approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, it was informed that on the intervening night of March 5/6, 2016, the ‘Gau Raksha Dal’ stopped a UP vehicle, which led to shots being fired. The occupants fled the scene, and an FIR was registered.

Mustain’s body was recovered on April 2, 2016, and a murder FIR was filed. While transferring the case to the CBI on May 9, and ordering the transfer of the DC and SP to a “far-off place”, the High Court stated that “there has been unleashing of terror by certain vigilante groups so claiming to be repository of social order with the backing of local administration, whereby they are not only circumventing the law, but putting the State into anarchy and thus obliterating the rule of law”.

The Haryana government approached the Supreme Court, which refused to stay the investigation by the CBI, but cancelled the transfers.

Pehlu Khan case

On April 1, 2017, a 55-year-old dairy farmer from Nuh was stopped on the Jaipur-Delhi highway by cow vigilantes suspecting cow smuggling. Pehlu Khan was beaten up and died two days later. A video showing him being assaulted also emerged. His sons were also injured.

A few days later, during the Assembly session, Rajasthan’s then Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria (now Punjab Governor) called Khan a cattle smuggler. He said, “Anyone carrying cattle illegally is a smuggler. Pehlu Khan did not have valid documents. He had three cases of cow smuggling registered against him.”

A sessions court acquitted six accused in the case on August 14, 2019, on grounds of poor police investigation during the BJP regime. An appeal filed during the Congress regime is pending in the high court. A Juvenile Justice Board later convicted two minors in March 2021.

Bhiwani incident

In another horrific incident in Haryana in 2023, cow vigilantes allegedly abducted Nasir and Junaid from Bharatpur in Rajasthan for cow smuggling. Both were burnt to death in Bhiwani on February 16, 2023. The case is at the stage of presenting the prosecution evidence.

Monu Manesar, a Bajrang Dal activist, is an accused in the case. He was a member of the Haryana government’s Cow Protection Task Force when the incident took place. When Monu Manesar was absconding, the then Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot stated that the Haryana Police were not cooperating in August 2023.

Other cases

On August 23, 2024, 19-year-old Aryan Mishra was shot dead by cow vigilantes in Faridabad on suspicion of being a cow smuggler. The case is at the trial stage.

On August 27, 2024, Saabir Malik, a scrap dealer and resident of West Bengal, was killed in Charkhi Dadri on suspicion of consuming beef. Ten members of a cow vigilante group are accused in the case. A video shows some people assaulting him. Two months later, a forensic lab confirmed it was not beef. The case is at the trial stage.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini stated that such incidents shouldn’t be seen as lynchings. He said people revered cows to the extent that if they found out about such incidents, who could stop them?

Not just Muslims

On October 15, 2002, a mob dragged five Dalits out of the Dulina police post lock-up in Jhajjar and killed them on suspicion of cow slaughter. Two bodies were set on fire. Police complicity was alleged in the case. Seven individuals were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010. Locals had come out in support of the guilty.

Maintaining data

In reply to an unstarred question from Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari on March 15, 2022, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai replied that lynching was not defined as a crime under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He admitted that in 2017, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) did collect data on cases of mob lynching, hate crimes, etc, but it was observed that the data was unreliable.

On March 22, 2022, Rai replied to another unstarred question from MP Hibi Eden that NCRB maintained “no separate data” for mob lynching.

On lynching and mob violence, a Supreme Court Bench said in the Tehseen Poonawalla case on July 17, 2018: “Lynching and mob violence are creeping threats that may gradually take the shape of a Typhon-like monster as evidenced in the wake of the rising wave of incidents of recurring patterns by frenzied mobs across the country, instigated by intolerance and misinformed by circulation of fake news and false stories. There has been an unfortunate litany of spiralling mob violence and agonised horror, presenting a grim and gruesome picture that compels us to reflect on whether the populace of a great Republic like ours has lost the values of tolerance to sustain a diverse culture.”

The apex court recommended to Parliament “to create a separate offence for lynching and provide adequate punishment”. It directed SP-level officers to monitor investigations and issue a chargesheet within the statutory period. It also asked state governments to prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme, and that the designated fast-track courts should conduct trials in such cases.

After the judgment, the Centre issued advisories “for taking measures to curb incidents of mob lynching”.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which superseded the IPC, came into effect on July 1, 2024. For the first time, the offence of mob lynching entered the legal books under Section 103 (2) of BNS. It states that “when a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground, each member shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and shall be liable to fine”.

As directed in the Poonawalla case and with a separate section in the new criminal law, the offences of mob lynching are now being counted, and conviction rates can be studied. Meanwhile, in Haryana, no case of mob lynching has been recorded since July 1, 2024 (date of promulgation of BNS), as per official records.