JAIPUR: Police on Monday arrested two persons who were travelling with dairy farmer Umar Khan, shot dead allegedly by cow vigilantes in Alwar district on November 10. Tahir Khan and Javed Khan were transporting cows along with Umar in a pick-up truck when they were attacked.
Police have claimed that Tahir and Javed were “cow smugglers” and arrested them, after they surrendered on Sunday, under the provisions of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.
The three persons had bought the cows in Dausa district and were transporting them in “doubtful circumstances”, claimed the police. Two of the attackers were arrested last week, with the police stating that they were members of a gang of robbers.
The dismembered body of Umar, 35, a resident of Ghatmika village in Bharatpur, was found on railway tracks near Govindgarh in Alwar district, with his family alleging that a crowd of cow vigilantes had killed him and thrown his body on railway line.
The People's Union for Civil Liberties has strongly condemned the arrest of the two men, terming it “travesty of justice”, and pointed out that they were in fact victims in an attempt to murder case and eye-witnesses of Umar's killing.
“The Alwar police should have arrested the killers. They want to build pressure on these two to bargain a deal, frighten them and dilute the case. This shows that the State government has given absolute impunity to the killers,” said PUCL-Rajasthan president Kavita Srivastava.
The PUCL demanded that the Govindgarh police station in-charge and Alwar Superintendent of Police be placed under suspension for allegedly providing impunity to cow vigilantes and manipulating evidence. Besides, the family of the deceased should be given a compensation of ₹25 lakh and government job for one member, it said.
