Jaipur: Almost two years after Pehlu Khan was lynched by a mob of cow vigilantes, the Alwar sessions court on Wednesday acquitted all six accused in the case, giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The judgement was announced in the court of Alwar additional district and session judge number-1, Dr Sarita Swami.
The hearing of the case ended on August 7 and nine people were held accused in the case which also included three minors who were out on bail.
The family of the victim produced 44 witnesses.
Khan's advocate Kasim Khan said the case has not been investigated properly and that the police produced a chargesheet under political pressure. "We shall study the judgement and will chalk out our strategy," he said.
Pehlu Khan (55) was a resident of Nuh (Haryana). On April 1, 2017 he was thrashed by a mob when he was transporting cattle in a pickup van on suspicion of smuggling cows from Rajasthan to Haryana, which led to his death on April 3, 2017 in a government hospital.
The incident was recorded on camera too. It showed Pehlu Khan being beaten by an aggressive crowd. The court was apparently not satisfied with the video evidence.
In 2017, the Rajasthan police had given a clean chit to the six people named by Pehlu Khan in his dying statement. The remaining three accused are minors and are being tried in a juvenile court.
Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi urged the Rajasthan government to file an appeal against the acquittal of the six accused in the killing of Pehlu Khan.
"In most lynchings, the accused were happy being filmed while lynching a human being. They wanted to be famous for these awful acts. But are we to now believe that no one killed Pehlu Khan? What will this deliberately shoddy prosecution tell his family?" asked the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief.
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