Police bullet killed Muslim man ferrying cows in Alwar, alleges PUCL

While the police are investigating murder of dairy farmer, Ummar Mohammed, whose dismembered body was found on the railway tracks near Govindgarh in Alwar district of Rajasthan on Friday, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has claimed that he was shot dead by the police during a joint operation with local cow vigilantes at Ghatmatika Pahadi near Pahadi Kaman.

The 35-year-old man was transporting cows to his native village Ghatmika in Bharatpur when he was allegedly attacked. A deserted pickup truck with bovines was found in the district on Friday morning, while the body of Umar was found by the railway tracks about 15 kilometres from the pickup.

The police was quick to register an FIR against the victims on Friday under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act. But relatives of the slain dairy farmer rued that the FIR in the murder case was filed two days after the recovery of Ummar’s body on Sunday evening.

Maulana Haneef, a social worker, told Hindustan Times that the body belonged to Ummar Mohammed, a dairy farmer who, along with Tahir Khan and Jabba, were taking their cows to Ghat Mika village from Bharatpur on Friday night when some people opened fire on them near Govindgarh, killing Mohammad on the spot.

Tahir Khan suffered a bullet wound and was taken to a hospital in Ferozepur in Haryana while Jabba was not traceable, he told the daily.

Condemning the ghastly murder, PUCL president Kavita Srivastava said: “The murder of Ummar is the complete failure of the Vasundhara Raje government in protecting Muslims in particular and dairy farmers from the killer gau rakshaks.”

“In this case, it was the bullet of the Ramgarh police that killed him and then the police tried to destroy evidence by throwing his body on the railway track,” Kavita claimed, adding that “the state of the body shows the brutality that the police and cow vigilantes can indulge in.”

Demanding a compensation including a cash amount of ₹25 lakh and land for the deceased’s family, Kavita demanded immediate lodging of an FIR against the cow vigilantes and Ramgarh police. “Nothing short of arrest of the accused policemen and vigilantes including one Rakesh whose name was given by Sahir—who escaped the bloody madness of the police and the gaur rakshaks” will do, she said.

She also demanded that Sahir be given protection and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. “The Ramgarh (Alwar) SHO be dismissed from duty. The SP Alwar be suspended for failing to prevent this and then for 2 days not locating the body,” she said.

Pertinently, Pehlu Khan (55) and four other dairy farmers were attacked by cow vigilantes in Alwar's Behror while they were on their way to Haryana after purchasing cattle in Rajasthan's Ramgarh on April 1. Khan succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

An independent fact-finding investigation into the lynching recently exposed how the Rajasthan Police purposely diluted the case by delaying filing the FIR and invoking lenient IPC sections. The investigation termed the police action as “monumental inefficiency” or a “deliberate attempt to weaken the cases against the accused gau rakshaks”.