6 Weeks After: What Happens to the Family After Cow Mobs Lynch a Man?

JAIPUR: The sons and relatives of Pehlu Khan who was beaten to death by “gaurakshaks”, are running from pillar to post trying to get justice as they have been slapped with FIRs for alleged cow smuggling. Beaten and assaulted themselves they are living under the threat of arrest, being treated at par with those who lynched their father. The family and the village lives in deep fear.

Irshad and Arif along with seriously injured Azmat and Rafiq, all survivors of the attack that took place at Behror by so called gaurakshaks on April 1, 2017 in which Khan was killed, met the IG of Jaipur Range Hemant Priyadarshi. Six FIRs for Khans lynching and alleged smuggling of cows have been clubbed together, and are the investigation is under the supervision of Priyadarshi. A new Investigating Officer has been appointed for the same, namely Additional SP Kotputli Ram Swaroop.

Khans sons thanked the IG for transferring the investigation out of Alwar and Behror to Jaipur district. They also demanded that the false cases of cow smuggling lodged by the police FIRs number 252 / 2017 and 253 / 2017 be fairly investigated and closed so that the false charge and stigma of cow smuggling be removed from them forever. The family is currently traumatised, and fearful of their security.

The sons also demanded that the 6 persons named by Khan before he died, in FIR number 255/2017, be arrested at the earliest and charge sheet filed.

They all repeatedly reiterated the fact that they were genuine dairy farmers, and their whole region survived on these trades. They said that they had bought the milch cows with the intent of selling milk only. Each of them also stated that they could bring past records of the Dairy and the sale of milk if the police still entertained any doubts about the reason as to why they had bought the cows. They also stated that they had been attacked because they were Muslims.

Seriously injured 25 year old Azmat Khan a multi lingual language expert, with the ability to read and write Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi and some English, told the IG that had the local police come on time Pehlu Khan would have been saved and he would have not have had serious injuries in his spine that finally claimed his life.

He also told the IG that had the local hospital referred them to a better hospital in Jaipur or Gurgaon probably Khan would have survived.

For his own treatment, Azmat Khan went to AIIMS in New Delhi where the doctors had advised him complete bed rest.

Rafiq whose two ribs and nose were broken in the assault, said he did not have any money to pay for the treatment and the fractures were healing on their own. He said that he had gone to buy a buffalo from the same fair, but since he did not have any money, he did not buy a milch cow and just took a lift back to the village with Pehlu Khan and his sons when they were attacked. He said that the goons robbed him of the Rs 25000 he had saved to try and get a buffalo, and that they became helpless witnesses to the severe and brutal attack on Pehlu Khan. He said that all laws had been followed in not just purchasing but also transferring the cows, and the vehicles transporting these could be measured as proof.

Al four of them also presented the Rajasthan High Court judgement which granted them anticipatory bail on May 3 in the FIR numbers 252 and 253/ 2017.

The IG assured them of fair and just investigation. He also told them that they had transferred all the FIRs including FIR number 254/2017 and 256 / 2017 and 257/ 2017, which were of the 11 other people caught by the local goons at Behror that day under the cow smuggling law. They were also put in jail. These people were from close to Nuh too.

(The delegation that met the IG included human rights worker Maulana Hanif from Alwar, Hussain Khan the Uncle of Pehlu Khan from Jaisinghpur, Nuh and Kavita Srivastava, President, PUCL Rajasthan, Sumitra Chopra, CPI-M, Jaipur district Secretary and BAsant Haryana, coordinator Rajasthan Nagrik Manch. )