Alwar lynching: Two men were brutally beaten up. One of them died on the spot.
Highlights
- Villagers in Ramgarh saw two men with cows on Friday and attacked them
- The two were beaten up and one of them died on the spot
- Vasundhara Raje tweeted "strictest possible action" will be taken
A man was beaten to death at Alwar in Rajasthan on Friday night by villagers who accused him of cow smuggling. The police have identified the man as 28-year-old Rakbar Khan, also known as Akbar. Villagers in Ramgarh saw two men with cows and attacked them, according to the police. The two were beaten up and one of them died on the spot. Two people have been detained in connection with mob killing.
"Akbar Khan, a resident of Kolgaon in Haryana, and another man were taking two cows to their village through a forest area near Lalawandi village in Alwar last night, when a group of people severely thrashed Khan, said Subhash Sharma, the officer at Ramgarh police station.
"It is not clear if they were cow smugglers. The body has been sent for postmortem, We are trying to identify the culprits and arrests will be made soon," Anil Beniwal, senior police officer in Alwar told NDTV. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje tweeted "strictest possible action" will be taken.
Rakbar Khan's killing comes four days after the Supreme Court had asked the legislature to consider enacting a new penal provision to deal with mob violence and provide deterrent punishment to offenders.
No citizen can take the law into their hands and the government must act, said the Supreme Court on Tuesday. "In case of fear and anarchy, the state has to act positively," said Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
He termed the incidents of mob lynching as "horrendous acts of mobocracy" and said the incidence has to be curbed with iron hands.
After the top court's observations, Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said there was no real need for a new law against cow vigilantism.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh condemned the mob killings but reiterated that law and order is a state issue. The centre can provide help if needed Mr Singh said.
It's been over a year since Pehlu Khan was killed allegedly by cow vigilantes in Alwar district. Now his eldest son Irshad is fighting a two-front war as the only breadwinner in the family and seeking justice for his father. With the family-owned dairy farming business shutting down after Khan's death, his son now feeds his family of 11 by working as a labourer in his village in Nuh district of Haryana.
Pehlu Khan, 55, was beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Alwar while he was transporting cattle on April 1 last year.