The Supreme Court on Friday will hear a public interest litigation filed by Congress leader Shehzad Poonawalla relating to as many as 10 cases of alleged cow slaughter and the violence that had followed, The Times of India reported. Among other cases, the petition includes the recent incident where a 55-year-old man in Alwar had been lynched by alleged cow vigilantes affiliated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Poonawalla has sought a ban on cow vigilantes and said the Centre was ineffective in controlling such groups. He accused the Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana governments of rewarding vigilantes because of which such groups had “earned legitimacy”. He said groups that infuriate the cow vigilante groups by spreading rumours on the social media need to be monitored too, The Times of India reported.
Other incidents, such as the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri district in 2015, attacks on Dalit in Gujarat’s Una in September last year have been included in the petition.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday denied that the Alwar incident was one of cow vigilantism. “The concerned state government has already condemned the media reports,” he said in the Rajya Sabha, adding that there should be no indication or message that the government supports violence.
The victim Pehlu Khan, believed to be a dairy farmer, succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday. After the assault, none of the attackers were arrested. Instead, the police had booked the victims on charges of cow smuggling. Three people from the mob – seen in a video of the attack that went viral – were arrested on Wednesday night.
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