Pehlu Khan murder bail order: Rajasthan HC contradicts its own observation

Pehlu Khan – a 55-years-old dairy farmer from Nuh, Haryana, was waylaid and attacked by Gau goons on April 1 in Alwar (Rajasthan) when he was transporting cattle to his village. Two days later, he succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Alwar.

Accompanied by his two sons, Khan, in his dying declaration, named six persons who attacked him but Rajasthan Crime Branch -Crime Investigation Department(CB-CID), after months of investigation, stated that none of them was involved in the attack that led to the death of Pehlu Khan.

Ravindra Singh is one of the accused who secured bail from the Rajasthan High Court on the flimsy ground. His bail order is a glaring evidence of the systematic failure where justice is denied to the poor.

On the first page of the bail order, he was mentioned “as seen in video footage” though “not involved in fighting” by the Rajasthan High Court. The bail order was issued on July 12. “Based on the video evidence, it is found that the applicant was not involved in the incident. In the footage too, he is not seen fighting, instead he can be seen saving others,” reads the bail order.

In the next page of the bail order, however, the court stated that the “applicant was present at Jaguar Chowk” while “the incident took place at Ramkumar Chowk.” It further said, “In the video clipping, the applicant was not present at Ramkumar Chowk.”

So the same court sees him in the video footage and then concludes that he was not present at the site of the incident. “If he was not involved in the attack, then who killed my father,” asked Pehlu Khan’s eldest son, Irshad.

Blaming Rajasthan Police of covering up the issue, Irshad’s lawyer and the petitioner in the Supreme Court on cow vigilantism, Tehseen Poonawalla, told National Herald that there is neither rule of law nor of prudence that dying declaration cannot be acted upon without corroboration.

“If the court is satisfied that the dying declaration is true and voluntary, it can base its conviction on it but in Pehlu Khan’s case, it seemed that the court did not pay any heed to this jurisprudence,” he added.

Based on the dying declaration of Pehlu Khan and the video footage, police named 15 people in the FIR of whom two were released in the beginning as they were minors. Out of 13, six have been given clean chit by CB-CID, while five out of the seven have been given bail by the High Court. Remaining two will also be granted bail, it seems.

Despite nationwide outrage and public outcry, it is important to note that only seven of the accused were arrested, of whom five were granted bail and only two are behind the bars as of now.

“After considering all facts, situations and the evidences attached with the bail application, without commenting on the merit of the case, (I) find it justifying to grant bail to the applicant under section 439 of IPC,” reads the bail order of the Rajasthan High Court, signed by Justice Banwari Lal Sharma.

“The kind of atmosphere in the country has been created, everything is affected by it. We want a court-monitored probe in this case and demand Supreme Court to transfer the case outside Rajasthan,” said Tehseen.

Since the Modi government came to power, there is an atmosphere of fear and violence. “Modi government is acting as a willing accomplice in all these cases of murder and lynching,” said senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.