Alwar lynching: Centre seeks report, probe ordered over ‘delay’ by police in helping victim

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought a report from Rajasthan government in connection with the alleged lynching of a man in Alwar on suspicion of cow smuggling.

28-year-old  Akram Khan was allegedly lynched on Friday night by a group of people who accused him of smuggling cows. The incident took place when Khan and his friend Aslam were taking two cows to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar district when five men attacked them.

The Rajasthan police have also set up a high-level committee to probe the allegations of delay against the Alwar police in taking Khan to a hospital.

It is alleged that when the incident happened in Lalawandi village in Alwar, it took over three hours for the police to take the victim to the Ramgarh Community Healthcare Centre, which is nearly 4 km away.

A right-wing supporter who made the call to police, told a news channel that the police took the seized cows to a shelter, visited the police station and even stopped for tea, before taking the man to hospital.

Akram succumbed to injuries before he could be admitted to the hospital. "As the injured man complained of pain, the policemen ordered tea from a nearby stall and waited for the vehicle carrying the cows," he said.

The BJP MLA from Ramgarh Gyandev Ahuja has also accused police of beating Akram in the police station that led to his death. Ahuja’s claims have been substantiated by the eyewitness who had called and informed the police about the incident.

Rajasthan Director General of Police (DGP) O P Galhotra said, "Allegations of delay in taking Khan to the hospital and policemen crossing their limits have come to fore. A four-member committee of senior police officials is in Alwar to enquire into the matter."

The committee  comprise  special DGP (law and order) N R K Reddy, Additional DGP (CID-Crime Branch) P K Singh, Inspector General (Jaipur Range) Hemant Priyadarshi and state nodal officer (cow vigilance) Mahendra Singh Chaudhary, Galhotra informed in a statement here.

Meanwhile, citing a media report which claimed that policemen in Alwar took three hours to take a dying victim of a lynch mob to a hospital as they took a tea-break enroute, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said hatred had replaced humanity in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "brutal" 'New India'.

However, reacting to Rahul's statement, senior BJP ministers called him ‘MERCHANT OF HATE (sic)’ and accused him of doing ‘VULTURE POLITICS (sic).’