Man killed in Alwar, cow vigilantes suspected

ALWAR: Alleged cow vigilantes murdered 35-year-old Ummar Khan in

Gopalgarh

village of Alwar district, while his associate Tahir Khan was shot at and critically wounded on Friday. The attack came barely seven months after

Pehlu Khan

, a dairy farmer in the same district, was allegedly lynched by a mob for transporting cows.

Late on Sunday, police detained a person with alleged links to cow vigilante groups and also said to be involved in looting vehicles.

The attack took place a day before CM Vasundhara Raje’s visit to Mewat. According to an FIR lodged at the Govindgarh police station, Ummar, Tahir Khan and their driver

Javed

were returning from Gahenkar village in Alwar with six cows and calves in a pick-up van at 5am, when eight people surrounded their vehicle at Gopalgarh and attacked them with guns and sharp weapons. Alwar SP

Rahul Prakash

said, “We’ve lodged two cases. The first, after the pick-up van with three calves and three cows was traced at Govindgarh.

Alwar SP Rahul Prakash said, “It’s a clear case of cow smuggling and we have lodged a case for the same. The second is a case of murder after Ummar’s relatives lodged an FIR. We have sent the body to Jaipur. Things will be clear after the report.”

According to the FIR, Ummar died on the spot while Tahir was grievously wounded and is fighting for survival at a private hospital in Haryana. Javed, however, is missing.

Ilyas Mohammed

, the uncle of Ummar, said in the FIR, “People who surrounded their vehicle claimed to be cow vigilantes and were calling out for a person called Rakesh among them. Later, they dumped Ummar’s body on railway tracks near Ramgarh railway station 12 to 14 km away.”

All three were residents of Ghatmika, near Govindgarh, in Bharatpur. Ramgarh police found Ummar’s mutilated body on Friday morning and sent it to the mortuary of Rajiv Gandhi general hospital where his relatives identified it. On Sunday, the body was sent to Jaipur for postmortem where doctors were on strike.

Jamshed Khan, sarpanch of Tuleda village, led a group of several hundred members of the Meo community who protested outside the hospital against Ummar’s alleged lynching.

Mohammed Hanif, a former member of the PUCL, said, “This is a shame on humanity. Not only was Ummar murdered by cow vigilantes, but his body was tam- pered with at the mortuary to erase signs of bullet injury.”

Hanif claimed he had photographs of the body before and after it was put inside the mortuary. “Tahir escaped along with Javed and has been admitted to a hospital in Haryana,” he added.

However, the police are also looking into the possibility of personal enmity between Ummar and Tahir leading to the murder. Their doubts have been triggered by the use of a gun — not the usual modus operandi of cow vigilantes. Meo community chief Sher Mohammad said, “We have lodged an FIR in this connection against unidentified people. They chased and beat up one to death. We demand prompt arrest in this connection."

Home minister

Gulab Chand Kataria

said, “We don’t deny the case and an FIR was lodged in this connection. Who were the assailants needs to be probed.”