Satna Mob Lynching: FIR Lodged Against Victims Without Running Tests on Seized Meat

In Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district, where a man was beaten to death and another was critically injured for allegedly killing cattle on Friday night, the city police has registered an FIR against the deceased and the injured man under various sections of Madhya Pradesh Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act 1959 and Madhya Pradesh Cow Slaughter Ban Act, 2004.

The deceased Shiraj Khan and his friend Shakeel, 38, were attacked on early Sunday when they were walking back to their homes in Maihar town of Satna district from a neighbouring village. They were stopped by a group of men in Amgar village – around 15 km away from Maihar – who accused them of killing a cow. The men beat Khan and Shakeel with sticks and wooden planks, the police said.

The Satna police registered two cases against the deceased Shiraj (wrongly identified as Riyaz Khan in police records and news reports) and Shakeel in connection with the incident. The first case was filed against the victims, charging them with cow slaughter. The FIR booked them under Section 4 read with Section 10, Section 8 read with Section 11 of Madhya Pradesh Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act 1959 and Section 4 read with Section 9 of Madhya Pradesh Cow Slaughter Ban Act, 2004.

It was only after an FIR was lodged against the victims that a case of murder and attempt to murder was filed against the four alleged assaulters. The cops have arrested four people — Pawan Singh, 35, Vijay Singh, 26, Phool Singh, 36, and Narayan Singh, 28 — for assaulting the two men a day after the incident.

Khan was a tailor, while Shakeel works in a bicycle repair shop in Maihar. After the assault, some residents of Amgar village spotted the two injured men and informed the nearest police station. They were both rushed to the hospital, where Khan succumbed to his injuries and Shakeel is under treatment in metro hospital, Jabalpur. Manager of the Jabalpur Metro hospital, Neerja Sharma said, “Shakeel is out of danger now but he is not in a condition to give any statement.”

However, a senior police officer has confirmed that Shakeel will be taken into custody once he is declared fit by doctors.

Interestingly, though the Superintendent of Police (Satna) Rajesh Hingankar claimed that the case, against the deceased and his friend, was registered after conducting a proper forensic test, it was actually done upon the verbal confirmation of a veterinary doctor and the chief medical and health officer.

Even the sub-divisional officer of Maihar Arvind Tiwari confirmed that the sample “wasn’t” sent to any lab. When asked how he concluded that the seized meat was beef, Tiwari said, ‘the Civil surgeon has confirmed it.’

Requesting anonymity, a forensic expert from Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur said, “It is impossible to identify beef without conducting forensic tests, laboratory tests or DNA tests. Nobody can identify it, not even the veterinary doctor or a physician. Moreover, if anyone follows the procedure and does the tests, it will take at least three to four days to come to conclusion.”   

The law under which Shiraj Khan and Shakeel has been booked was amended by the state government in 2012. As per the amended law, the maximum punishment for cow slaughtering is seven years imprisonment with a fine of Rs 5,000 which was earlier three years of improvement and 5,000 fine.

Khan’s is survived by his wife and four children – three daughters and a son, all aged between four and 14 years.