Dadri lynching: Bisara wants Akhlaq brother arrested for cow slaughter, probe says he was not at spot

“We looked at the cell-phone locations of Jaan Mohammad and found that there wxere three cell-phone towers between his location and the spot in Bisara where he is alleged to have killed a calf on September 25 last year,” a senior UP police source said.

Mohammad said that he had not visited Bisara around Eid last year. “I went to my office in Greater Noida at 6 am on September 24 last year and left at around 10.30 am. My shift ends at 2 pm but I came home early because I had fever. I had also consulted the doctor at the private firm where I work. On September 25, I left the house twice — to get milk and to offer namaz at a local mosque. Since I was unwell, I did not even go to the Eidgah. Some people visited me on the evening of September 25. They have submitted affidavits to the police about this,” Mohammad said.

After a forensic report in June claimed that the meat found at the scene of the lynching “belongs to cow or its progeny”, Bisara resident Suraj Pal had filed a police complaint, alleging that Akhlaq, Mohammad and five members of Akhlaq’s family had “cut the neck of a calf” on September 25 last year.

Eventually, an FIR was registered at Jharcha police station on June 15, in line with a local court’s directions. Later, the Allahabad High Court put a stay on the arrest of everyone, except Mohammad, in the case.

Meanwhile, a team of forensic experts visited Bisara as well as Akhlaq’s house to gather evidence as part of its probe into the FIR registered against Akhlaq and his family.

On October 4, Ravin Sisodia, an accused in Akhlaq’s lynching, died in Delhi’s LNJP Hospital after “multi-organ failure”. His family and some Bisara residents refused to cremate his body till their demands, which included Mohammad’s arrest, were met. Eventually, a compromise was reached after police assured that Mohammad would be arrested if and when enough evidence against him in the cow slaughter case is collected.