Minutes before the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju made a statement to the House, calling the Alwar incident an “altercation between two groups.”
Pehlu Khan, 55, a dairy farm owner from Haryana, was allegedly lynched by cow vigilantes while transporting cows bought at Bahrod in Alwar, Rajasthan.
According to the statement: “Eleven persons were detained on April 1 after the Bahrod police received information that certain cows and a calf was being smuggled out of the State in canters and pick-up jeeps. Subsequently, the station received a complaint that some people stopped two pick-up vans in which there were cows, and there was an altercation between two groups. On reaching the spot, the Station House Officer found 200 people had gathered there. There was an altercation and five persons were injured. An FIR was filed. After Mohammad Pehlu Khan died of injuries, Section 302 of the IPC was added to the FIR.”
Mr. Rijiju told The Hindu that the State informed the Home Ministry that a reward was announced for information leading to the arrest of the accused. “The Home Ministry issued an advisory last year that though there are provisions in the Constitution to ensure cow protection, this should not give freedom to any individual to take the law into his hands. We have issued a stern warning to all the States,” he said.
The statement was submitted after the matter was raised in Parliament on April 7 and Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked Home Minister Rajnath Singh to make a statement in the House. It is learnt that the Minister did not read out the statement as the government anticipated uproar from the Opposition.
The State government said three persons had so far been arrested and a special police team was constituted to probe the incident, which took place when 16 persons were allegedly transporting 36 bovines in six pick-up vans.
Pehlu Khan and four others, including his two sons, were beaten brutally by some locals who suspected that they were smuggling cows. The incident rocked both Houses of Parliament where the Congress attacked the BJP saying the Constitution was being violated in the name of cow protection in the states ruled by the saffron party.
