A man from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur was lynched allegedly by a group of cow vigilantes after accusing him and his cousin of cow smuggling in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.
The incident took place at about 3 am on September 16 when the 35-year-old and his cousin Mohsin were returning to Mandsaur in a pickup truck from a cattle market in Bhilwara after purchasing cattle for their agricultural and dairy needs, the newspaper reported. The incident took place in Bhilwara.
While The Hindu reported that the deceased man’s name was Aasif Babu Multani, The Indian Express identified him as Sheru Susadiya.
Five persons were arrested in the matter and a first information report was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, extortion and unlawful assembly, The Indian Express quoted Bhilwara Police as saying.
A separate case for cow smuggling was also filed.
Manzoor Pemla, the complainant and a family member of the deceased man, said that a vehicle was chasing Multani and Mohsin, The Indian Express reported. The vehicle later overtook the pickup truck and blocked them from proceeding.
Some men arrived on motorcycles, he said.
“They pulled both of them out of the vehicle and started assaulting them, saying they slaughtered cows even after they said they had purchased the domestic cattle from a fair but they didn’t listen,” Pemla was quoted as having alleged.
The complainant alleged that while the persons accused in the matter – Deva Gurjar, Kunal Malpura, Pradeep Rajpurohit, Nitesh Saini and others – assaulted the two men, Mohsin escaped and hid in the forest.
Pemla alleged in the FIR that the persons accused in the matter had also stolen Rs 36,000 that Multani had. They also used Multani’s phone to call his family to demand Rs 50,000 more to spare his life and avoid police action, The Indian Express reported.
The phone from which the family had received the call was later switched off, Pemla said.
He added that at about 3 pm on September 17, the family received a call from the Banera police station informing them that Multani had been admitted to a hospital in Bhilwara and that he had suffered a head injury.
By the time the family reached the hospital, Multani had been transferred to a hospital in Jaipur, where he died on Friday, Pemla was quoted as saying.
“My brother’s only mistake was that he was a Muslim and he was carrying cattle,” The Hindu quoted Pemla as saying. “There was not even a cow in the van but only oxen and buffaloes.”
The newspaper quoted Farooq, a relative, as saying that the family was not sure about who were the five persons the police had arrested.
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