A court in Rajasthan’s Alwar on Thursday, 11 July, accepted a plea by state police to re-investigate the cow smuggling case against two sons of Pehlu Khan, who was lynched in 2017.
A supplementary charge sheet will be filed to re-investigate the case, said Alwar SP Parish Deshmukh, reported ANI.
Khan’s family filed an application before the Rajasthan police, claiming they were not moving the cows out of Rajasthan but only to a relative's farm in Alwar.
Khan was beaten to death on the Jaipur-Delhi Highway in Alwar in April 2017 while he and his sons were bringing cattle bought from a fair in Jaipur to their home in Haryana's Nuh.
CONTROVERSY AROUND CHARGE SHEET
Two FIRs were filed in the case. While one was against eight people for mob lynching, the other was against Khan and his sons for transporting cattle without due permission from the administration. The eight accused of mob lynching are out on bail.
Rajasthan police, earlier in June, clarified that Alwar mob lynching victim Pehlu Khan’s name was dropped from the charge sheet – filed against him and his sons for cow smuggling – after his death.
According to the Delhi High Court in a 1999 case, a dead person can be named as an accused in a charge sheet since they may have been involved in an alleged offence. However, they cannot be tried.
WHAT DID PEHLU KHAN’S SONS SAY?
Speaking to ANI, Irshad Khan, Pehlu Khan’s son, said, “I heard from lawyers that a charge sheet has been filed against me. We were hoping for justice, but instead we are the victims of a double-injustice now (sic)”
“We lost our father in the attack by cow vigilantes and now we have been charged as cow smugglers. We had hoped that the new Congress government in Rajasthan will review and withdraw the case against us but now a charge sheet has been filed against us. We hoped for justice after the government change but that didn’t happen.”Khan’s eldest son Irshad to The Indian Express
(With inputs from ANI, The Indian Express)
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