(It has been a year since 14 August 2019, when a lower court in Rajasthan acquitted all seven adult accused of lynching Khan in broad daylight. Khan’s profile is being republished from the archives to mark one year since the lower court judgment.)
“No one did their job properly. Why did the police botch up the investigation?,” Pehlu Khan’s elder son Irshad, who was with his father Pehlu Khan when he was lynched by self-styled cow vigilantes, asks.
Pehlu Khan was lynched to death on 1 April 2017 in Behror near Alwar in Rajasthan after being suspected of smuggling cows. While both his sons who were with him, Irshad and Arif, survived despite sustaining injuries, Khan died two days later. While the Alwar court acquitted all of the accused in August 2019 due to lack of evidence, in October of the same year the Jaipur bench of the high court quashed the cow-smuggling case that had been lodged against Pehlu, Irshad and Arif.
Sitting in the courtyard of their dilapidated red-brick home in Haryana’s Nuh district, Pehlu’s family gave The Quint a glimpse into who Khan was, before he was reduced to a statistic of mob violence.
"Har jumme ki shaam, hum sab jaate hai Pehlu Khan ke kabr pe unse baat karne. (Every Friday evening, all of us visit Pehlu Khan's grave to offer our prayers)," said 25-year-old Mubarik, one of Pehlu's eight children.
He feels betrayed after all six accused were acquitted despite there being video evidence of the brutal attack.
Khan’s wife, 55-year-old Zaibuna, recalls the moments after she got to know of the extent of violence that had been inflicted on her husband and two sons.
“A boy from the village came to me and showed me a video. I could see my sons, Arif and Irshad, along with Pehlu Khan being brutally beaten. My heart stopped. I kept calling him while staring at the video, hoping someone would come to rescue them or he would pick up my calls. Neither of the two things happened.”Zaibuna
Khan is survived by eight children – four girls and four boys, namely Abida, Irshad, Arif, Mubarik, Sabbah, Varisa, Huneza, and Insaad. His family had reposed their faith in the judicial system. But, two years later, their faith was shattered when the local court acquitted all accused on the grounds of benefit of doubt.
"The police were under pressure. The judge was under pressure. No one did their job like they should have. We are poor. Poor people don't have the luxury of being heard in court," Zaibuna concludes.
Mubarik, who is a truck driver, was in Kolkata when his family was attacked. His father's grave is special for Mubarik as he was not there to bury him. His mother chimes in, "We were very scared about everything that was happening. We didn't want to stress out Mubarik as he was out for work. By the time he returned home, his father was already buried."
Mubarik sheds a tear in the background, expressing a sense of betrayal. “I would have liked to see his face one last time.”
Pehlu would attend the Friday prayers with friends at Nuh's Jama Masjid. "Kurta, pajama aur safi pehen ke nikalte the. Jab vapas aate the toh sabke liye meetha laate the. (He used to wear kurta, pajama and the topi and head out for namaz. When he would return, he always had sweets in his back pocket)" said Zubaina, gesturing her right hand entering an imaginary pocket.
She smiles and adds, "The grandkids, three boys and one girl, would run behind him till he gave them the sweets. They were sure he would never return empty-handed."
Now, however, when they ask where Pehlu dada is, they're told he was buried. "They're taken to the kabr (grave). They stand their quietly and offer prayers. They mumble something to him time and again," Zubaina said, adding that his clothes, which were lying around the house, have been claimed by his daughters.
"Sabbah and Varisa, both of whom are married, have taken a pair of his clothes. They iron it and keep it at their home, some 20-odd kilometers from here. They want a nishaani (token) of their father," she adds.
The clothes left behind in their home are worn by Irshad, the eldest, or Arif. Mubarik, however, has not been able to bring himself to wear the same clothes – but all of them have laid claim to Khan’s bike.
Talking about Eid, Khan’s daughters Huneza and Sabbah said he would buy them new clothes on the festival each year.
"He had a decent choice in clothes," Huneza said coyly. Sabbah agrees. Their mother interrupts, staring at her daughters, "They both used to give him a clear list of what they wanted, what colour, what style and what type."
Huneza and Sabbah giggle away at their mother's candidness. Zubaina is quick to add that the family has not had the money to buy new things ever since.
It was the coming of Ramzan that had prompted Khan's trip to the cattle fair in Jaipur, Zubaina said.
“Ramzan was to begin in May-end that year. He wanted to make some money to buy everyone things. Pehlu told me he wanted to attend this cattle trade, something he had never done before. He had heard that the cattle there were of better quality and produced more milk. During Ramzan, everyone needs milk for kheer and other things.”Zubaina
The money would also have come in handy to re-do portions of the house.
On how Khan was as a husband, she said he was soft-spoken, never expected her to clean up after him or raised his voice.
"He just had one request. He wanted kheer every Eid," Zubaina said. He used to sleep alone in a room near the gate of the house. Today, the roof of that room is broken and no one has bothered to fix it. "What is the use," she said, while pointing towards the bed he used to sleep on.
His family said he was a pious man, praying five times a day, and reading the namaz at night as well.
"The last thing he said to me, standing right here, was that he will be back in 24 hours. I miss him," Zubaina said, as her voice betrays a deep sorrow, one that has been lived every day, over and over again.
Going into deep thought, she said, "In my village, which is predominantly Muslim, there are also Hindus. Mainly Kumars live here. We do not fight with them then why are they hell-bent on fighting us?" she is left asking.
Mubarik, who accompanies this reporter to Khan’s grave, finds himself at the cemetery alone often. While he stood there, looking down at his father's grave, which reads 'Pehlu Khan' in Hindi on a yellow cardboard, he said, "I was hoping that when I came here after the verdict, I would be able to tell him that his killers had been punished. What do I say to him now?”
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