No case against Pehlu Khan, say police

The police on Tuesday said that there were no previous cases against Pehlu Khan, a day after Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria had claimed in the Assembly that the dairy farmer who was lynched by cow vigilantes had three cases against him. “Anyone carrying cattle illegally is a smuggler. Pehlu Khan did not have valid documents. He already had three cases of cow smuggling registered against him,” Kataria had told the Assembly, sparking an uproar by the Opposition. But Alwar SP Rahul Prakash said, “There were cases against Pehlu’s son Irshad but none against Pehlu.”

According to the police, there were two cases against Irshad dating back to 2011 — one each in Haryana’s Mewat and Rohtak districts. A third case was lodged in Haryana against Pappu Khan and Saeed Khan in 2007. “Gulab Kataria has no right to occupy such a high post when he is misleading people and that too in the State Assembly,” said Sher Mohammad, chief of Alwar’s Meo panchayat.

“It was the same case lodged under different sections in two different police stations against Irshad for transporting buffaloes,” he said. “Irshad was bringing a buffalo for his cart when that case was lodged,” said Pehlu’s uncle Husain Khan.