Alwar lynching victim Rakbar Khan died of “shock” due to his injuries, news agency ANI quoted his post-mortem report as saying.
Rakbar, who was in his thirties, died after suspected cow vigilantes assaulted him at Alwar’s Lalavandi village on Saturday morning. According to latest reports, the Rajasthan government was all set to order a magisterial inquiry into the incident. “A formal notification in this regard will be issued shortly,” said NRK Reddy, inspector general (law and order), Rajasthan.
State home minister Gulab Chand Kataria and chief secretary DB Gupta will also visit Lalavandi.
A four-member panel appointed to probe the circumstances surrounding his death has admitted that there were lapses on the part of the police.
“At the preliminary stage, we have found that there was some error in judgment. There was a time lapse of three hours, and the incident could have been avoided if the police had responded more efficiently,” said inspector general of police (law and order) NRK Reddy, who heads the probe committee.
The police have been accused of further beating Rakbar after the assault and squandering over three hours in having tea and shuttling the cows to a bovine shelter before finally admitting him to a hospital. While an assistant sub-inspector – Mohan Singh – has been suspended, three constables were transferred to the Alwar police lines in this connection, said Reddy.
Three people have been arrested so far.
According to Aslam Khan, who was with Rakbar at the time of the attack, the duo had bought two cows for Rs 60,000 and were herding them home when they heard gunshots. “As we were passing through Lalavandi, some people started shouting that we were trying to steal cows. They rushed towards us. I got scared and ran into a field,” he said.
Aslam said he could not see the attackers because of darkness, but could recognise their voices as they were “abusing us very loudly”. He remained hidden in the field until daybreak on Saturday before returning to his village in Haryana.
Others, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad member Nawal Kishore Sharma, have accused the police of brutally assaulting Rakbar
