All six adults accused of lynching Mr. Pehlu Khan, a farmer, have been acquitted by an Alwar court, Rajasthan that gave them the “benefit of doubt”.
What is the case about?
In April 2017, the dairy-farmer from Nuh, Haryana, Pehlu Khan, was assaulted by cow-vigilantes while he was making his way from a cattle fair.
The video footage of this incident went viral.
The court did not admit the footage because it had not been forensically authenticated.
Two years after the lynching, neither the Rajasthan police nor the prosecution that presented the video for inclusion as evidence had sought forensic verification.
Notably, the Rajasthan police separately investigated the lynching twice.
What are the disparities in the case?
The court order is an outcome of careless investigation in the case.
Accusation - Khan, in his dying declaration, named six persons.
The court said that these were not named in the complainants’ (Khan’s sons) statement to the police, as required under Section 161 of the CrPC.
The accused were identified and charged on the basis of the video that went viral.
However, the state police had failed to seize the device on which the viral footage was made.
Another witness, who had shot a separate video of the lynching, turned hostile.
In September 2017, the state police gave a clean chit to the 6 persons named by Khan in his statement before his death.
This was on the basis of call records and statements from the employees of a cow shelter 4 kilometres from the crime spot.
One of the six named by Khan is alleged to be the manager of the shelter.
Doctor certificate - The police recorded Khan’s statement at the hospital to which he was taken for treatment.
But no certificate was obtained from the doctors in charge to show that Khan was in a condition to give the statement.
Record - The investigating officer presented the recorded statement at the police station 16 hours later, which is a serious lapse.
Cause of death - The Behror Community Health Centre’s post-mortem report suggests that the assault was the cause of death.
However, the doctors at Kailash Hospital, where Khan was taken for treatment, told the police that the cause of death was heart attack.
The Rajasthan police also registered charges of homicide against the accused only after public outcry over the lynching.
Charges - Meanwhile, of the seven FIRs registered in the case, six are under the Rajasthan cow-protection law.
And Khan’s sons and others have been named for transporting cows illegally, despite submission of documents showing that the transport was legal.
One of those named by Khan was caught in a sting, admitting to have seriously assaulted Khan over a period of one-and-a-half hours.
In all, the case brings to light many inconsistencies in the investigation process.
