Mobocracy At Its Peak: After Pehlu, Akbar Khan Lynched in Rajasthan's Alwar

Innocent people are being brutally beaten to death almost every day and yet, the Modi government thinks that a law against lynching is not important. They have not collected a single data on the numerous lynching cases that have gripped India in recent times.

Once again, nearly a year after Pehlu Khan was lynched, Ramgarh, a village in the Alwar District of Rajasthan witnessed another horrific lynching incident. On Friday night, a video showing a 28-year-old Akbar Khan being brutally assaulted by a murderous mob based on rumours of cow smuggling, surfaced on social media.

Accompanied by another man, Akbar Khan, a resident of Kolgaon, Haryana, were taking two cows to their village through a forest area near Lalawandi village in the district's Ramgarh region, when a group of people severely beaten him to death.

Additional superintendent of Alwar police, Anil Beniwal, said they will make arrests soon. "It is not clear if they were cow smugglers. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination. We are trying to identify the culprits and arrests will be made soon," ANI, quoted him.

Speaking to Newsclick, Akbar’s father, Suleman Khan said, "My son was goat trader and it is our livelihood. Neither he nor anyone else in our family has ever traded in cow meat. Akbar was the middle one among my three sons. He would usually visit the place to see goats and sell them in different cities since it is Bakr-eid next month."

He further added that on July 20, Akbar left for Alwar along with his friend Aslam to purchase goats. However, he was thrashed to death by a mob in Ramgarh. Akbar's bike was stolen and the police have arrested two people but the bike is still missing. Aslam, who was with Akbar, reportedly fled at the time of the attack.

This is the fifth reported incident of lynching under the BJP ruled Rajasthan in one year alone. After 2014, even since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, India has witnessed the highest number of lynching incidents across the country. Recently, Union minister of the State for Home Affairs, Hansraj Ahir, revealed that there are no official records that specifically list mob lynching incidents.

The minister’s response comes a day after the Supreme Court stated that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to become a new norm and asked the parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism.

Pehlu Khan was lynched to death in Alwar, last year. Later, the Rajasthan Police gave a clean chit to the six accused, despite having been caught on camera, killing Khan.