Satna lynching: Police slap case on victims for allegedly killing cattle

In Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district, where a man beaten to death and another has been critically injured for allegedly killing cattle on Friday night, the city police registered an FIR against the deceased and the injured man under section 4/10, 8/11 of Madhya Pradesh Agricultural Cattle Prevention Act 1959 and 4/9 of Madhya Pradesh Cow Slaughter Ban Act, 2004.

The Satna police have registered two cases in connection with the incident. The first case was filed against the victims, charging them with cow slaughter. Later, a case of murder and attempt to murder was filed against the four alleged assaulters.

The case against Shiraj Khan (wrongly identified as Riyaz Khan in police records and news reports) and his friend Shakeel, 38, was registered without conducting a forensic test but upon verbal confirmation from a veterinary doctor, chief medical and health officer while the superintendent of police (Satna) Rajesh Hingankar has claimed that the case was registered after conducting proper forensic test.

“The police had recovered the carcass of a bull and two packages of meat at the scene of the crime and FIR has been registered against Shiraj Khan 45, (deceased) and his friend Shakeel, 38, after the conducting test. They have been booked under section 4/10, 8/11 of Madhya Pradesh Agricultural Cattle Prevention Act 1959 and 4/9 of
Madhya Madhya Pradesh Cow Slaughter Ban Act, 2004.”

“Moreover, Shakeel who is in Jabalpur for the treatment, will be taken into custody once he is declared fit by doctors, a senior police officer said.”

Requesting anonymity, forensic expert from Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur, said, “It is impossible to identify beef without conducting forensic test, laboratory test or DNA test. Nobody can identify it even veterinary doctor or physician. Moreover, if anyone goes through this process, at least three to four days will take to come to conclusion.”

However, according to a Times of India report on the incident, sub divisional officer of Maihar, Arvind Tiwari, said ‘it (sample) wasn’t’ sent for tests. When asked how he concluded the seized meat was beef, Tiwari said, ‘Civil surgeon has confirmed it.’

The law under which Shiraj Khan, 45, (deceased) and Shakeel, 38, has been booked was amended by the state government in 2012. As per the amended law, the maximum punishment is of cow slaughtering is seven years imprisonment with a fine of ₹5,000 which was earlier three years of improvement and ₹5,000 fine.

The incident

Shiraj Khan and his friend Shakeel, 38, were attacked on early Sunday when they were walking back to their homes in Maihar town of Satna district from a neighbouring village. They were stopped by a group of men in Amgar village – around 15 km away from Maihar – who accused them of killing a cow. The men beat Khan and Shakeel with sticks and wooden planks, the police said.

Khan was a tailor, while Shakeel works in a bicycle repair shop in Maihar. After the assault, some residents of Amgar village spotted the two injured men and informed the nearest police station. They were both rushed to the hospital, where Khan succumbed to his injuries and Shakeel is under treatment in metro hospital, Jabalpur. Manager of the Jabalpur Metro hospital, Neerja Sharma said, “Shakeel is out of danger now but he is not in a condition to give any statement.”

Khan’s is survived by his wife and four children – three daughters and a son, all aged between four and 14 years.

A day after the incident, cops arrested four people — Pawan Singh, 35, Vijay Singh, 26, Phool Singh, 36, and Narayan Singh, 28 — for assaulting the two men.