Haryana: Class 12 student killed allegedly by men who mistook him for a cattle smuggler

A Class 12 student was chased in a car and then killed allegedly by men who mistook him for a cattle smuggler in Haryana’s Faridabad district, India Today reported on Tuesday.

Five members of a cow vigilante group have been arrested for the attack, which took place on August 23. They were identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh and Saurav.

The 19-year-old student who was killed has been identified as Aryan Mishra, according to NDTV.

Around midnight on August 23, Mishra had gone out with his friends Harshit and Shanky in a Duster car to eat noodles. The accused men told the police they had got information that cattle smugglers were carrying out surveillance in Faridabad and were travelling in Duster and Fortuner sports utility vehicles.

When the accused men saw the Duster car on August 23, they signalled for it to stop. However, according to the police, Harshit and Shanky had previously been involved in a dispute with a man and a case had been filed against Shanky. Due to this, they mistakenly believed that the same persons were signalling for them to stop the car, and so, they sped away, India Today reported.

The cow vigilantes then began chasing the Duster car, believing that the occupants were cattle smugglers. After chasing the car for several kilometres, they shot at the vehicle. One of the bullets hit Mishra, who was sitting next to the driver’s seat. The 19-year-old was rushed to a hospital, but died a day later.

The police alleged that the accused men initially tried to mislead them by claiming that they threw the gun with which they shot at the car into a canal. However, the police later recovered the weapon from Anil’s home.

This was the second killing by cow vigilantes in Haryana that came to light in the past few days.

On August 27, a migrant worker from West Bengal named Sabir Malik was beaten to death by men claimed he had eaten beef. Another man was injured in the attack.

Five persons who were allegedly members of a cow vigilante group were arrested for the attack.