Witnesses in dairy farmer Pehlu Khan’s lynching case, who were allegedly attacked on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway last week, will challenge the final report likely to be filed by the police on the incident. Some unidentified persons opened fire on them when they were on their way to Behror to depose in the court during trial, it is alleged.
The witnesses are Pehlu Khan’s two sons, Arif and Irshad, and their lawyer Asad Hayat was travelling with them. Two other witnesses, Rafiq and Azmat, who were accompanying Pehlu Khan during the attack by cow vigilantes last year, were also in the car.
Police’s claim
The police have expressed doubts over the veracity of the witnesses’ complaint and termed the September 29 incident near Neemrana concocted. Behror Deputy Superintendent of Police Kushal Singh said on Wednesday that the witnesses had cooked up the story to get the trial shifted out of the town to Alwar district headquarters.
Mr. Singh said there was no circumstantial evidence of firing on the witnesses’ car and no black SUV occupied by the assailants, as described by the complainants, was seen in the CCTV footage. He said the police would file a final report in the court and seek initiation of proceedings against the witnesses for making a “false complaint.”
Protest petition
Responding to the claims of police authorities, Mr. Hayat said the witnesses would exercise their right to challenge the final report by filing a protest petition. “The police have reached the conclusion after a hasty and sketchy investigation. Our priority is to get the deposition of witnesses recorded in the court and get justice for Pehlu Khan, who was brutally killed on the highway,” he said.
Pehlu Khan, 55, and his sons were transporting cows, after purchasing them in a cattle fair in Jaipur, to their hometown in Haryana’s Nuh district, when they were waylaid near Behror by a mob of self-styled cow vigilantes and beaten up on April 1, 2017. Pehlu Khan succumbed to his injuries after two days.
Mr. Hayat said Pehlu Khan’s family had no faith in the Behror police because the latter had given clean chit to six accused named in the first information report.
