Alwar lynching: Evidence suggests it was custodial death, says Rajasthan Home Minister

READ | Alwar lynching victim’s friend said assailants claimed to be MLA’s men: Police

The Rajasthan police have already set up a panel to probe the allegation that Alwar cops took close to three hours to take Akbar to the Ramgarh Community Health Centre, which is roughly four kilometres from the crime spot after he was lynched on Friday night. It has been learnt that police had allegedly stopped to have tea and got his clothes changed at the police station before taking him to the health centre.

The post-mortem report.

The minister, along with chief secretary D B Gupta and DGP O P Galhotra visited Ramgarh in Alwar district today to inspect the spot where Khan (28) was allegedly lynched. Kataria said the Ramgarh police made an error of judgment as they first took the cows to the shelter and then took the victim to the hospital. Taking Khan to the hospital earlier could have saved his life, he said.

Even as the government continued to face brickbats from the Opposition over the incident, two BJP MLAs stoked further controversy by making off-the-cuff remarks over the incident. Alwar (Urban) MLA Banwari Lal Singhal accused the people from the victim’s Meo community of being involved in crimes in the district and said he had already banned them from his office. “The people from the Meo community are involved in crime and entire Alwar is suffering, and people should know about this,” he said.

Another BJP MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh Lodh opined that incidents of lynching would not stop till the time cow got the status of “Rashtra Mata”. “Till cow is not accorded the status of ‘Rashtra Mata’, I feel the war for ‘gau raksha’ (cow protection) will not stop even if ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow protectors) are put into jails or bullets are fired at them,” Singh said.

Earlier in the day, the autopsy report said Rakbar suffered 13 injuries –eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, and a fracture in the wrist and another in left femur– due to the attack. “The cause of death is shock as a result of antemortem injuries sustained over body mentioned in the post-mortem report. However, visceras (sic) are preserved to rule out any intoxication prior to death or pre-existing disease,” the doctors said.

(With PTI inputs)