A local court in Surajpur on Thursday directed the Greater Noida police to register a case of cow slaughter against Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi and his family under the UP Cow Protection Act, 1955.
Akhlaq was > lynched by his neighbors in Bishahra village in Dadri last September over rumours of him and his family > having eaten beef .
The court order came in response to a petition of some of the accused in the Akhlaq murder case who > sought an FIR against Akhlaq and his family for alleged cow slaughter.
The accused had petitioned the court under Section 156(3) of CrPC with a request to direct the police to lodge an FIR. Their plea named seven persons as accused, including Mohammad Akhlaq, his wife Ikraman, mother Asghari, brother Jaan Mohammad, daughter Shaishta and son Danish.
Ram Sharan Nagar, the counsel of the accused who petitioned the court seeking an FIR against Akhlaq's family for alleged cow slaughter, told The Hindu , “We had requested the court to order registration of an FIR against Akhlaq and his family as they had slaughtered a cow and stored its meat, violating the UP Cow Protection Act, 1955”. The detailed court order is awaited.
Also read: >How the events unfolded
The forensic report from a Mathura lab had in June declared that the meat at the centre of the lynching > was beef . A recovery memo prepared by the police, however, revealed that the meat sample that was declared as beef by the Mathura lab was collected not from Akhlaq’s house but from the place where the mob allegedly gathered to attack Akhlaq.
Armed with the forensic report which declared the flesh to be “beef”, some of the 18 accused arrested for allegedly killing Akhlaq had gone to court, seeking registration of an FIR against Akhlaq's family for alleged cow slaughter.
Back in June, a group of BJP and Shiv Sena leaders had > defied the prohibitory orders in place in Dadri and held a meeting in Bishahra. They demanded an FIR action against Alkhlak's family and issued an ultimatum of twenty days to the administration for registration of a case of cow slaughter.
Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader and father of Vishal Rana, an accused in Akhlaq's lynching case had said in the meeting, “We had been yelling at the top of our voices that a cow was slaughtered, but nobody listened to us then. That has been established now by the forensic report. The logical thing would be to do justice and punish the guilty by registering a case against Akhlaq and his family for slaughtering a cow.”
Yusif Saifi, the lawyer of Akhlaq's family, however, said that he would challenge the order in higher court. "The court has repeatedly said that the case here is that of murder and forensic report had no implication on the case. All the accused persons have admitted their roles in Akhlaq's murder. So, we will challenge the order in higher court,” Saifi said.
Key developments:
| 1 | The Chief Minister had announced an increase in the financial assistance for the family from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh. |
| 2 | Vishal, son of Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader, was arrested in connection with the case. >Read more |
| 3 | Family members of Mohammad Akhlaque Saifi, who was lynched over rumours about cow slaughter in this Uttar Pradesh village, had told the police about the possible role of Vishal, son of Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader, in inciting the mob, sources say. |
| 4 | With two high-profile visits, first by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and later by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the area remained tense. Several hundreds of agitated village women on the streets protested against what they alleged to be “one-sided media coverage”. |
| 5 | Armed with stones, several hundred women took to the streets and abused presspersons and politicians. They chased the media outside the village in the morning and barred anyone from entering the village. |
| 6 | Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha told presspersons that the Air Force was in touch with the family and was looking to move them to a secure military locality. >Read more |
| 7 | Union Minister Mahesh Sharma had described the lynching as an “accident” and said that no “communal colour” should be given to it. >Read more |
| 8 | The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a probe into the incident. Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan said the probe would be completed on Wednesday. >Read more |
| 9 | In the wake of the killing, Vice-President Hamid Ansari said that progress and development can be achieved if the people of India are united. |
| 10 | In Dadri's Bishara village on September 28, a 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched and his son Danish (22) was brutally beaten up as punishment for allegedly eating beef on Eid and 'storing it' for later consumption. |
