Man suspected of cow smuggling lynched in Rajasthan, 2 nabbed

A 28-year-old man has been beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar district, police said on Saturday. Two persons have been arrested.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje condemned the Friday night incident in which some villagers caught and beat up Akbar Khan, suspecting him to be a cow smuggler.

"The incident of alleged lynching of a person transporting bovines in Alwar district is condemnable. Strictest possible action shall be taken against the perpetrators," Raje tweeted.

Khan, a resident of Mewat in Rajasthan, was transporting the animals to his village along with another man when they were stopped by a group of villagers near Lalawandi village in Alwar.

They were brutally thrashed, the office of Additional Director General Jaipur Range, Ramgarh, received this information at 12.40 a.m.

When the police team reached the spot they found an injured Khan lying in the mud. Two persons were standing there with two cows, ADGP Hemant Priyadarshi told the media.

Khan told the officers that he and his companion Aslam had purchased the cows from Ladpur and were on their way to their village when they were mistaken for cow smugglers and attacked.

"My limbs are broken," said Khan covered in mud before collapsing.

He was immediately rushed to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

His body was sent for autopsy. The police in Ramgarh registered a case against unidentified persons under several sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Police have arrested Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjit Singh Sardar who were found on the spot standing with bovines.Further probe is on.

Alwar has earlier also witnessed attacks in the name of cow protectionism. The latest killing comes more than a year after Pehlu Khan was murdered allegedly by some cow vigilantes in April 2017.

The central and state governments came under a sharp criticism from the Supreme Court earlier this week over frequent lynching incidents.

The Supreme Court also asked Parliament to come up with a law to tackle cow vigilantism and lynching, calling such incidents "horrendous acts of mobocracy" that should be nipped in the bud.

--IANS

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