A local court in Rajasthan’s Alwar on Thursday sentenced four men to seven years’ imprisonment and acquitted one person in the 2018 Rakbar Khan lynching case, marking the state’s first convictions in a lynching on suspicion of cattle smuggling.
Rakbar Khan died after being assaulted by a mob in Alwar’s Lalwandi on the intervening night of July 20 and 21, 2018, when he and another man, Aslam Khan, were transporting cows.
Dharmendra Yadav, Paramjeet Singh, Vijay Kumar, and Naresh Kumar were held guilty under sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code, according to special public prosecutor (SPP) Ashok Sharma. Naval Kishore, a VHP leader, was acquitted of all charges “on account of insufficient evidence against him”.
Talking to The Indian Express, Rakbar’s wife Asmina said, “The main accused has been acquitted while the others have been given only seven years – this should be increased. This is not justice. My husband was murdered by them.”
SPP Sharma said that while he was happy with the convictions, he was not satisfied with the sentence handed out, and that the prosecution would look into whether it should recommend an appeal.
On Kishore’s acquittal, the SPP said, “Naval (Kishore) was made an accused on the basis of his telephonic conversations with the other accused. But the court did not find it as ‘clinching evidence’ and gave him the benefit of doubt.” At the time of the incident, Kishore had informed police about the two men transporting cattle, and was a crucial witness in the case.
Reacting to his acquittal, Kishore said, “The other four are also innocent, we have full faith in the High Court. I won’t say that there is political pressure (on the trial court), they must have acted as per their understanding. We have got some justice, and will get more from the High Court.”
Defence lawyer Hemraj Gupta said the four men who were convicted in the case were, however, acquitted of charges under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 147 (rioting).
Pronouncing the verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Sunil Kumar Goyal handed out a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each under the culpable homicide charge, and one month’s imprisonment and Rs 500 fine each under the wrongful restraint charge. The punishments will run concurrently, the lawyers said.
Considering the sensitivity of the issue, the judgment was delivered amid heavy police presence at the Alwar court.
After the sentencing, which was not as severe as expected by the prosecution, some people chanted “Jai Shri Ram” and “Satya ki jai ho!” (May the truth win) among other slogans in the court premises.
Nasir Ali Naqvi, another SPP in the case, told The Indian Express that he is writing to the government to appeal the case in the high court. “They should have been convicted under IPC 302 (murder) too. And the one acquitted (Naval Kishore) had been identified in the court by the other victim Aslam (who was with Rakbar when the mob stopped them, but had managed to escape). When you are considering his statement on others (leading to their conviction), how can you discard it for Naval?”
In February 2021, days after Rakbar’s mother Habiban had voiced her apprehensions about how the case was proceeding, the Rajasthan government had appointed Naqvi, a former chairman of the Rajasthan Board of Muslim Waqfs and also a former chairman of the Bar Council of Rajasthan, as an SPP in the case.
Citing the judgment delivered by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the Tehseen S Poonawalla vs Union of India case on mob lynching, Naqvi said that even under IPC 304, the convicts should have been given the maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “The four convicts have been given seven years’ punishment each. We will look to have the order reviewed.”
Rakbar, 31, was transporting cows on foot along with Aslam Khan, 32, when they were stopped by a mob in Lalwandi, under the Ramgarh police station, in Alwar, on suspicion of cattle smuggling. While Rakbar was severely assaulted and succumbed to his injuries a few hours later, Aslam managed to escape. They were headed for their village Kolgaon in Haryana, around a dozen kilometres from Lalwandi.
At the time, Naval Kishore had told The Indian Express that he had reached the spot after the incident took place. “Some local youths had called me after midnight. As my phone was on silent, they called my nephew, who woke me up and told me locals had caught a cow smuggler and asked me to call the police. So I called the police at 12.41 am… I live close to the police station, and hence I barely took five minutes to get there, and then waited another 5-10 minutes for a police jeep.”
Rakbar’s death had led to an outcry, following which the top police administration of Rajasthan, including then home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, had visited the spot and ordered a judicial inquiry.
Speaking on the judicial inquiry held earlier, SPP Sharma said that “allegations were levelled that police played an active role in the incident. However, the judicial magistrate found that the only lapse on part of the police was that medical help was not provided (to Rakbar) in time.”
At the spot in Alwar where 32-year-old Rakbar was lynched. (Express photo by Hamza Khan) 
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