Family of dead smuggling accused alleges assault: ‘He was mechanic, gau rakshaks rammed their Bolero into his car’

Waris Khan

Police have contested the claim, saying Waris had likely died of internal injuries and that there was no visible injury on his body.

Showing a purported video of Waris and his two associates allegedly recorded during a Facebook Live by gau raskshaks after the mishap, Imran said: “In the video, it is clear that he has no serious injury. He is answering normally. How did he later succumb to internal injuries? We want justice.”

The alleged mishap took place in Nuh’s Tauru area. Police said a Santro with three occupants — Waris Khan (22), Shokeen (30) and Nafis — crashed into a tempo near Khori Kalan on Tauru-Bhiwadi road on Saturday at around 5 am.

Nuh SP Varun Singla said both vehicles were badly damaged and three accused suffered injuries in the accident, which was captured on CCTV.

“Gau rakshaks reached the spot and recorded a video of the accused before intimating the police. A police team arrived shortly after. The accused were handed over to the police and police took the trio to a CHC in Tauru, from where Waris and Nafis were referred to government medical college in Nalhar. At Nalhar, Waris died of injuries sustained in the accident,” said the SP.

Singla said the post mortem was conducted by a medical board and a final report of cause of death is awaited. “The body had no visible injuries. It seems that he succumbed to internal injuries sustained in the accident. The family of the deceased has alleged that he was beaten up by gau rakshaks of Bajrang Dal, but prima facie, since the body had no visible injuries, there is no evidence suggesting any physical assault. A complaint against Bajrang Dal has been recorded in the daily diary register. There was no delay in police reaching the spot or any negligence in the accused being handed over to the police from gau rakshaks.”

Imran, meanwhile, said that at 6 am, a villager saw the alleged Facebook Live video of Waris and informed the family.

“For 3-4 hours, we kept looking for him. At 10 am, we heard that he was taken to Nalhar. When I reached there, he had died. Nafis told us at the hospital that after the crash, the vigilantes forced them into their car and took them to a deserted area and beat them up,” he said.

In the purported video of the incident, the vigilantes could be seen bringing out a cow from the Santro and questioning the three injured about their names and respective villages. In another video, vigilantes, one of whom is armed with a gun, are seen posing next to the three injured in front of the damaged Santro.

In a police complaint, Imran said that Bajrang Dal members rammed their Bolero into the Santro around 5.30 am near Kheri Kalan.

On the complaint of the tempo driver, police have registered an FIR against the three occupants of the car under several IPC sections and sections of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act. Police said Nafis was arrested earlier in a case of cattle slaughter and was out on bail.

In the FIR, the tempo driver, Abdul Karim, said: “…I reported the incident to the police (at 112). A PCR arrived and after that, some members of the Gau Raksha Dal from Tauru also reached the spot. The police and Gau Raksha Dal members, with the assistance of passersby, took the injured trio out of the car. The car did not have a rear seat and a cow, which had been forced into the car, was rescued by gau rakshaks. The car occupants were taking this cow for the purpose of slaughtering it.”

Waris is survived by his wife and a three-month-old daughter.

Mohit Yadav, member of cow protection task force and Bajrang Dal, who was named in the complaint, said, “The allegations against us are false. It was an accident. We received information about the accused smuggling a cow and reached the spot. We recorded a video of the accused and handed them to police.”