Alwar/New Delhi: A Muslim man who was transporting cows near the Rajasthan-Haryana border was shot dead allegedly by vigilantes while two of his aides were injured after being thrashed.
The incident took place in Fahari village near Govindh Gadh in Alwar district of Rajasthan on November 10. Sources said Ummar Muhammad and the two others were transporting cows from Mewat in Haryana to Bharatpur in Rajasthan but they were waylaid by the mob and assaulted.
While police remained tight-lipped about the incident, official sources confirmed that Ummar died of a bullet wound. His body was initially in a mortuary at Shehr hospital but was later shifted to Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Jaipur. He is survived by his wife and eight children.
The two others got minor injuries and ran away from the scene. One of them, Tahir Muhammad, got himself admitted to a hospital near the state border and the other person was there with him.
Ummar's uncle Iliyas Muhammad requested the Alwar police to file an FIR in the case. Muhammad stated that the vehicle in which "dairy cows were being transported" was surrounded by a group of 7-8 people. He also said Ummar and others were not ferrying cows for the purpose of slaughter.
Govindgarh police have registered an FIR in the case, and one of the suspects has been detained.
The police have invoked section 147 of IPC that deals with punishment for rioting, section 302 for murder, section 307 for an attempt to murder and section 291 for causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender.
The complaint also added that one of the people who encircled the vehicle was 'Rakesh', as referred to by members, who claimed that they were working for a "Gau Raksha group".
The incident has sent ripples in the Mewat community, with residents launching a protest. Relatives of the victim alleged that policemen too were present when the crime took place but did nothing to stop the attackers. They have demanded immediate arrest of the accused.
Sher Muhammad, chairman of the Meo Panchayat of Alwar, told News18 that villagers claimed the people who fired the bullets were not in any uniform. “The attack took place at around five in the morning. We are calling it a case of lynching too as they have not only been shot but also beaten up. We will press charges accordingly,” said Muhammad.
The Panchayat leader alleged that the killers were not done with Ummar even after shooting him dead and tried to show the death an accident by getting a moving train to run over his body.
He said, however, that they could not dump the entire body and only his head and left limb got severed, but the body part where the bullet hit remained intact.
“When the police located his body, they brought it to the Shehr Hospital mortuary. There was no investigation carried out. The family members recognised Ummar with the help of his slippers,” Sher Muhammad said.
He said the family will not take the body from the mortuary and bury it until a case is registered to make sure that Ummar’s case does not meet the same fate as that of Pehlu Khan, the dairy farmer who died after being assaulted by cow vigilantes in April this year. All six accused arrested for Pehlu’s murder were given a clean-chit by the special investigation team probing the case.
Ummar’s brother Khurshid said he came to know of the attack from villagers and does not know anything about the attackers. “We we only came to know of it today. Since then we are at the hospital. We do not know who killed him and how he was killed. There needs to be a thorough investigation,” said Khurshid.
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