AGENCIES / JAIPUR
In a bizarre action, Rajasthan police have filed a charge sheet for cow smuggling against deceased dairy farmer Pehlu Khan who was lynched two years ago by a mob of self-styled cow vigilantes in Alwar district, when he was transporting cattle to his native village in Haryana.
The charge sheet also names Khan’s two sons, Irshad and Aarif, who were with him at the time of the incident, and Khan Mohammed, owner of the pick-up truck in which the cows were transported.
The charge sheet has been filed under various sections of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995, in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Alwar district’s Behror town.
The charge sheet, filed on May 29, states that investigation had been completed and offences under Sections 5, 8 and 9 of the RBA Act had been proved against the accused. It also says the offence under Section 6 (transporter to be abettor) of the Act had been proved against Khan Mohammed.
Alwar Superintendent of Police Paris Deshmukh told media that a “complete picture” about the charge sheet had not been presented and he would soon issue a statement on the case.
Khan, 55, was transporting cows, after purchasing them in a cattle fair in Jaipur, to their hometown Nuh in Haryana on April 1, 2017. They were waylaid near Behror on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway by the mob and beaten up with the accusation of smuggling cattle. Khan died of his injuries at a private hospital two days later.