Pehlu Khan lynching: Gehlot govt moves HC against acquittal of accused

Ashok Gehlot government has filed an appeal in the High Court in Rajasthan against the acquittal of all six accused in the Pehlu Khan lynching case. Pehlu Khan and his sons were thrashed by a mob on the suspicion of cow smuggling in Alwar's Behror on April 1, 2017. 

"The appeal was filed in the Rajasthan High court on Monday," Additional Advocate General R P Singh said.

Court acquits all accused in case

The Alwar court on August 14 acquitted all six adults accused in the case, giving them the benefit of doubt. Three other juveniles allegedly involved in the case are still facing an inquiry by a Juvenile Justice Board. The government statement said the SIT will also identify errors and irregularities in the investigation and fix the responsibility for botched up investigation on individual officers. 

The SIT will also gather important oral and documentary evidence, left out or ignored in the earlier probe, it added. DIG (Special Operation Group) Nitin Deep Ballagan will head the special probe team, which will also include SP (CID-CB) Sameer Kumar Singh and ASP (Vigilance) Sameer Dubey.

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Rajasthan Police had filed a charge sheet in the Alwar lynching case and booked the deceased Pehlu Khan for cow smuggling on June 29, prior to acquitting the accused lynchers.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi lambasted the Congress party, calling them a replica of the BJP following the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Police against Pehlu Khan.

He asked the people from the Muslim community in Rajasthan to 'reject such individuals and organisations' who are 'brokers of Congress party' furthermore asked them to develop their own 'independent political platform' His tweet read: Congress in “Power” is a replica of BJP, Muslims of Rajasthan must realise this, reject such individuals/organisations who are brokers of Congress party, and start developing their own independent political platform, 70 years is a long time please change. 

Pehlu Khan had died at a hospital in Alwar on April 3.  

(With PTI inputs) 

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