JAIPUR: A Rajasthan court on Thursday sentenced four accused to seven years of imprisonment in a horrific case of mob lynching by cow vigilantes in 2018.
On July 20 that year, Rakbar Khan a.k.a Akbar, a resident of Haryana, along with Aslam were taking a cow from Lalawandi village in Ramgarh at night. Suspecting cow smuggling, some vigilantes attacked them. While Aslam escaped, Rakbar was badly bruised in the assault before he was handed over to the police. He was taken to a hospital in a critical state where succumbed to his injuries.
Delivering the verdict, an Alwar court imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 as well on each of the four cow vigilantes — Paramjit Singh, Dharmendra Yadav, Naresh and Vijay. However, fifth accused Naval Kishore Sharma was acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence.
All four accused were convicted under sections 304A (death by negligence not amounting to culpable homicide) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC. Hemraj Gupta, lawyer for the accused, said that if the charge of mob lynching was accepted, the accused ought to have been considered guilty under Section 147 (rioting). But the court cleared all under that section and convicted them only under Section 304.
However, advocate Ashok Sharma, appearing for the victim, said there is no IPC section for mob lynching. The sections in which the accused have been held guilty are part of Section 302 (murder). A large number of people were present outside the court since morning for the verdict. Personnel from several police stations were deployed as a precautionary measure.
After the verdict, some people raised slogans against the Gehlot government and Ramgarh MLA Safia Khan. Sadar Sher Mohammad of Meo panchayat rued that the accused were acquitted under Section 302, adding they will file an appeal against the verdict.
Will study verdict, says Gehlot
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the government will study the verdict and take further action, if necessary