Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has appealed an Alwar court’s acquittal of six accused in the infamous Pehlu Khan mob lynching case in the high court. The accused were acquitted in August this year.
“The appeal was presented before the Rajasthan high court four days ago, but it has not yet been accepted. We cannot comment upon when the appeal will be listed in the court, it could be before Diwali or after that,” R.P. Singh, additional advocate general, told The Wire.
The appeal is filed under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which states, “the state government may, in any case, direct the public prosecutor to present an appeal to the High Court from an original or appellate order of an acquittal passed by any court other than a High Court.” In an appeal against acquittal, the appellate court has every power to re-examine the evidence and come to its own conclusion.
Also read: A Detailed Breakdown of Exactly How Justice Was Denied to Pehlu Khan
In July this year, the Rajasthan police under the Congress government had moved an application in the court to seek permission to further investigate the case. Following this, the government also constituted a special investigation team (SIT) that submitted its report last month, pointing out lacunae in the previous investigation, including presenting the video of the lynching before the court in a proper manner.
Pehlu Khan’s family has also filed an appeal in the high court against the lower court’s verdict.
Pehlu Khan’s lynching
In April last year, Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, and four others, including his two sons, were attacked by self-styled ‘cow vigilantes’ in Behror, Alwar. They were returning to their homes in Haryana’s Nuh with cows they had purchased at a cattle fair in Jaipur. Accusing them of being cattle smugglers, the mob assaulted them for almost three hours between 7 pm and 10 pm. Khan succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Before dying, Khan, in a written statement, accused six members of Sangh parivar-affiliated organisations of the assault. “About 200 men stopped our pick-up truck at Behror flyover and started abusing and assaulting us. While assaulting, they were taking names – Om Yadav, Jagmal Yadav, Hukum Chand Yadav, Navin Sharma, Sudheer Yadav and Rahul Saini – to refer to each other and saying that they are members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. They also warned that whoever passes through Behror with cows will be beaten up like this.”
Also read: Pehlu Khan Case: Police Statement to Court Indicates Rajasthan CID Diluted Probe
An FIR was registered against the six men under various sections of the Indian Penal Code: 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 308 (culpable homicide), 379 (theft) and 427 (destruction of property). Murder was added following Khan’s death.
Five months later, after the crime investigation department investigated the case, the police said the six men were not involved and moved for their discharge. Two hundred other ‘unidentified’ people were listed as accused in the murder case. Nine other men were also identified based on video footage of the incident, including two minors, and were arrested on charges of murder – Vipin Yadav, Ravindra Kumar, Dayanand, Kaluram, Yogesh, Neeraj, Pavan, Bhim Singh and Deepak.
In August this year, a local court in Alwar acquitted six of these nine accused, citing a lack of evidence. Two other accused are minors and proceedings against them are pending at the Juvenile Justice Board. One is absconding.