A Muslim man brutally beaten up by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district has died from his injuries, the police said on Tuesday.
Pehlu Khan was part of a group of 15 Muslim men carrying cattle in Rajasthan’s Alwar district when he was brutally thrashed along with the others by cow vigilantes last week. Khan died on Monday night.
Though the Rajasthan Police registered a case against the attackers, the cops also booked the group of Muslim men for “smuggling” even when they had government receipts that allowed them to ferry the cows.
According to police, gau rakshaks affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal allegedly attacked five men who were transporting cows to Nuh district in Haryana. The victims also alleged that they were not given proper medical treatment at the Kailash Hospital in Behror in Alwar. Thus, Phelu Khan died in the hospital, they said. Shyam Sunder Sharma, director of Kailash Hospital, denied the charges.
Referring to the killing of a Muslim man by cow vigilantes over suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Home Minister Gulab Chand Katariya on Wednesday asserted that violation of law in the name of protecting cows was unacceptable.
“The vigilantes have done a good job by protecting cows from smuggling. But they have violated the law by beating people brutally,” he said.
“The police had stopped few vehicles that were carrying cows. Some of them fled but the vigilantes caught them and beat them,” he added.
Katariya further said that the vigilantes should not have assaulted the men, adding a case was registered against the smugglers as well as the protectors who disobeyed the law.
