Parliamentarians Demand Ban on Cow Vigilante Groups

The video, of gaurakshaks beating 4 Muslim men on the Jaipur Delhi highway, surfaced on the internet.They were beaten in pretence that they were transporting cows illegally. They had bought the cattle from Jaipur Haat Vada, organised by Jaipur Municipal Corporation and had receipts of the purchase. Event then they were stopped at the highway and beaten brutally. One of them, Pehlu Khan, succumbed to his injuries.

After a long silence from the Modi government, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, minister in the union government, stated in Rajya Sabha that no such incident had taken place. Two different delegations, one of CPI (M) and other of All India KisanSabha (AIKS) visited Behror, Rajasthan and Nuh, Haryana, respectively.

The CPI (M) delegation comprising of Subhashini Ali, Polit Bureau member, Badrudduja Khan, MP Lok Sabha West Bengal, Shankar Prasad Dutta, MP Lok Sabha Tripura, Amra Ram, Secretary Rajasthan CPI (M) visited Behror, the place where ghastly attack of so called GauRakshaks on Peasants took place on 1st April, 2017.

The delegation first visited the police station of that place and met Deputy SP Mr. Parmal who is the investigating officer. He said that on the 1st, before the incident in which Pahlu Khan lost his life, 4 Vans with cattle had been brought to the police station and all the people had been arrested. They continue to remain in custody. Subsequently two more Vans were stopped by a mob on the main Jaipur Delhi Highway and the occupants were savagely beaten. He claimed that the police actually used force to chase the mob away and took the injured to the hospital. Except for Pahlu Khan, the others left the hospital next day and he died there on the 3rd April. He also informed the delegation that a sum of 25,000 was found in the victims’ pockets along with their papers which were in safe keeping of the hospital administration.

The delegation then met the District Collector Shri Muktanand Agrawal in Alwar. When the delegation discussed the incident, he admitted that whatever had happened was very wrong. He also said that those attacked were in possession of receipts for the cattle.

The delegation demanded that Strong and effective measures to be taken against the Vigilante groups, if so called “Hindu Chaukis” are being established, they must be removed. Also, the administration should get all details of the purchases of cattle from the Jaipur Haatvada organized by the Jaipur Municipal Corporation. This demand becomes necessary because the police were insisting that transporting cattle to another state without requisite permission is illegal. The necessary permission should therefore have been provided by the municipal corporation before making sale. All the accused must be arrested and the cases disposed of expeditiously. The press note can be read here .

As part of a different delegation leaders of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on7th April visited Jaisinghpur of Nuh District of Haryana to console the bereaved family members of Pehlu Khan. AIKS leaders including Hannan Mollh, General Secretary, P Krishnaprasad, Finance Secretary, Master Sher Singh, President of Haryana Kisansabha and Manoj Kumar visited the family of the victims.  

The delegation met Pehlu Khan’s mother Ankuri Beegam, wife Jebuna Beegam, and two children Irshad and Arif who were also injured in the same incident and consoled them. They also visited Ajmat who is bed ridden at home since he was forcefully discharged from the Alwar Hospital. The family of Pehlu Khan has around 1.5 acre land and was depending on wheat cultivation and dairying as livelihood. Pehlu Khan, his two children, his nephew and two other villagers went to Jaipur to purchase milching animals since they hope they could get animals cheap in the Cattle fair of Jaipur Hatwada. 

The mob which attacked the farmers were allegedly belongs to Viswa Hindu Parishath and Bajrang Dal indicates the role of RSS in the heinous attack on the farmers. After Pehlu Khan died succumbing to his injuries the District leaders of VHP had threatened the senior police officers of dire consequences if they arrest any of their activists. The Police registered a false FIR against Pehlu Khan and other innocent famers despite they had records of purchasing from Jaipur Municipal Corporation. 

It is a serious situation of dragging the country towards anarchy and lawlessness which needs to be fought tooth and nail to protect the democratic rights of the people and secular fabrics of the society.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in