Junaid Khan was killed by a group of men on a train who accused him of carrying beef.
Highlights
- Junaid Khan, 16, stabbed to death on train last month
- Police says man who stabbed him arrested from Maharashtra
- Had earlier wrongly identified another man as main accused
The man who allegedly
stabbed 16-year-old Junaid Khan on a train in Haryana last month has been arrested, the Faridabad Police said today. The Police added that the accused, whose identity they are keeping a secret for legal reasons, has confessed to stabbing the teenager.
The suspect, who was arrested from Maharashtra's Dhule district, will be presented in court tomorrow.
The arrest comes just days after the police in Haryana admitted they had
wrongly identified the person they suspected was the main accused in the case. The police on Monday had
also offered Rs 2 lakh for any information that could lead to the killer.
Last week, the police said that one of three men seen on a bike near the station where Junaid was thrown off the train was the alleged murderer. By then, it had arrested five people for the death of the teen, who was accused, along with his young companions, of carrying beef in their bags. A huge impediment for the police has been the lack of witnesses - despite the fact that the compartment in which Junaid was lynched was packed with people, nobody has come forth with an account of what happened.
How Junaid Khan was attacked has been pieced together on the basis of information from his brother, Haseeb, and two cousins, who were also injured.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
warned that killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable. It was his second warning to self-declared cow vigilantes in nearly a year. His comments came after thousands held protests in different cities against the spate of recent assaults.
Among the five people in jail for Junaid Khan's murder is an employee of the Delhi government.
Junaid Khan and his brothers were returning to their village on Haryana after a day-trip to Delhi to shop for Eid when a murderous mob turned on them. Haseeb has said his skull cap was pulled off his head and his beard was tugged while the crowd shouted abuses at the Muslim men in addition to yelling they were "anti-nationals" and "beef-eaters".