On Friday last week, while taking on the Opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of his vision for “new India”, about how young entrepreneurs are taking us to “innovative India”. Barely hours after his speech ended in Parliament, about 150 kilometres away, young and “innovative” India was at work, preparing the ground for news which would shake the country once again. Akbar Khan, alias Rakbar, 28, was waylaid by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Lalawandi village. Don’t forget this was the third act of cow lynching in Alwar district in the past two years.

The story begins last April, with the images of Pehlu Khan being thrashed on the streets of Behror in Alwar. Hundreds of people surrounded him, a few also recording the incident on camera, but none came to his rescue. On the night of July 20-21, the horror of Pehlu Khan’s murder and alleged professional misconduct was repeated in Akbar’s case.

What makes the entire episode more disturbing is the reaction of residents of Lalawandi village, in Alwar’s Ramgarh block, to Akbar Khan’s murder. There is not even an ounce of remorse. The frenzy of Hindutva overrides human compassion here. Cow vigilantism is accepted. Case in point is Chen Singh, about 20 years old and a Class 9 dropout. With full confidence and no regret, Singh justifies cow vigilantism. He said, “Gaay din mein bhi lekar jaye to rokte hain. Sarpanch ke sign ka bhi value nahi mante hain. Koi SP se likhwa kar aaye to jaane denge idhar se (Forget about the night, we don’t let people transport cows from here even in the daytime. Signatures of the head of the villages do not matter to us. If one has permission from the Superintendent of Police, he will be allowed to go).”

When asked whom they specifically stop, the response was—Muslims. There was a discussion among the group of five-seven young residents of Lalawandi on why the Sarpanch’s signatures shouldn’t be taken as a legitimate pass or certificate for those transporting the cows. Singh overpowered the rest to say, “Don’t we know what a Muslim will do with a cow? He might claim that he has bought the cow for milk, and after reaching Haryana, each of them is sent to slaughterhouses.”

That should work as a brief synopsis of how and why “gau rakshaks” in this area terrorise Muslims transporting cows. They told Newslaundry with pride that Lalawandi is also known for its cow vigilantes.

It’s not just the young. A kilometre from here, as we took the lane that goes straight to the crime spot, we met another bunch of Lalawandi residents. Media cars and vans are frequenting the village, and hence everyone seems to be curious and cautious. These middle-aged residents told us how cattle smugglers buy or steal cows from Rajasthan and pass the border. In Haryana’s Ferozepur Jhirka, these cows are sent to slaughterhouses. The residents believe that’s how Meo Muslims of the adjacent district meet their day’s end.  

“In Rajasthan, there is protection for cows, but in Haryana, things are not right. Haryana is a safe haven for these cow smugglers. There they put these cows in the slaughterhouses. This Akbar was also transporting cows to Ferozepur Jhirka,” Dharam Prakash told Newslaundry. This is a 52-year-old teacher who runs a senior primary school in the village.

Speaking of alleged ‘brutalities’ perpetrated by Meos against cows, 36-year-old Kapoor Chand Sharma told us how the “likes” of Akbar transport cows to Haryana in an inhumane manner. He said, “Ek Indica mein do do gaay dalkar le jaate hain ye Meo (Muslims). Pata nahi hai apko kya? (They transport two cows even in Indica cars. Don’t you know that?).” However, no one here seemed concerned about what the cow vigilantes from the village did to Akbar.  

Khan was thrashed by a frenzied Hindu mob on the field owned by Dharmendra Yadav. In his last statement to the Ramgarh police, Khan had narrated his ordeals and later died in suspicious circumstances.

Importantly, Yadav, Paramjeet Singh and Naresh Rajput are the three accused arrested in the case so far, and the fourth suspect Vijay is absconding. All belong to the two parts of the village: Chotta and Bada Lalawandi. Even though the village has mixed population—including a few Sikh and Muslim families—cow vigilantism is the accepted norm here.

Barely 300 metres from where Khan was assaulted is the house of Gajraj Yadav, 57. He regrets Khan’s death, but mainly because youth from his village are being “subjected to torture by the police”. Offering us milk, Yadav alleges that for the past 15 days, Akbar and his associates had been transporting cows in this manner in the night. That is when a bunch of people from the village traced their activity. Gajraj asked, “Will anyone try to transport and slaughter pigs in this fashion in a Muslim country? Then why do it in India? It is a land for Hindus, where the cow is preached like gods.”  

Meanwhile, Dharmendra Yadav’s father Kailash Yadav, a farmer, said he had no idea whether his son was part of a cow vigilante group. “At times he used to return late in the night, hence we didn’t check on him a lot.” While his elder son is in the Delhi police, Dharmendra was preparing for competitive examinations. “I got to know about the incident and his arrest only in the morning (July 21),” his father said.

No idea if my son was a part of a cow vigilante group, says accused Dharmendra Yadav’s father, Kailash Yadav

As we were leaving from Lalawandi village at about 8 pm, we noticed a meeting of 20-25 people being conveyed in the outyard of a house. This correspondent stopped to check what was happening. The group was discussing the lynching incident, and how their boys were being targeted for discharging their “duties” as a Hindu. The 52-year-old teacher was at the centre of the meeting, sitting on a chair while the others were on the ground. The group included the uncle of Vijay, the fourth accused. As Vijay is still absconding, his father and brother were detained by the police on the morning of July 21.

The teacher, Dharam Prakash, was speaking to someone over the phone and checking the organisational backing for their boys. As he disconnected the call, I asked whether they were expecting a rescue from a political party. To this, Prakash said, “Nahi humari baat sangathan se chal rahi hai (We are in touch with the sangathan). While he didn’t elaborate what he meant by Sangathan, it was clear that he was speaking about one of the saffron organisations.

Importantly, Prakash is also a relative of the chief of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) cow protection wing in Ramgarh—Naval Kishor Sharma, alias Mishra. Dharmendra and Paramjeet had called Sharma that night to inform him about cattle being seized by the group. Prakash said, “If we had intentions to kill Akbar, why would we call the police? And at least in that case, our kids would have been called martyrs who sacrificed everything for Hindu dharam.”

A pretty disturbing conversation followed this, when another man, in his late 50s, said something which depicts the deep-rooted, pathological hatred for the minority community. “Ye madarchod Meo humari gaay katte hain, humari Hindu ladkiyon se naam badal kar shaadi bhi karte hain (These motherfucker Meos slaughter our cows, whom we consider as our mother. They allure Hindu girls and marry them),” he said. “Yahi log antanwadi bante hain (They are the ones who also become terrorists).”

This is probably the reason why Muslims in nearby villages avoid transporting cows. So much so that they fear to take their own cows to the veterinary hospital, and choose to call private veterinary doctors home. Human lives are at risk, as a group of self-proclaimed cow vigilantes has assumed the position of law-enforcing bodies.   

A house in Mewat awaits justice

Roughly 10 kilometres before you enter Ferozepur Jhirka, a relatively narrow lane cuts away from the Delhi-Alwar highway and takes you to Doha village in Haryana. This smooth tar coal road ends after a couple of kilometres. The board here reads “Kolgaon”. This is the mourning village of Akbar Khan.

The entrance of Akbar Khan’s village Koalgaon in Haryana

The last time Asmeena spoke to her husband Khan was on Friday evening, when she was feeding the cows. The next morning, she woke up to the most horrific news of her life—Khan had been lynched by cow vigilantes.

She said Khan and his associate Aslam had left for a Rajasthan village in Ramgarh block to buy cows. “He had borrowed ₹50,000 from my mother to buy these cows. I tried his number that night but it was switched off.”

The 27-year-old woman has been constantly falling unconscious. It has become a kind of a loop: a few broken conversations including those with the reporters frequenting her house, sobbing, and a distinctive mention of Khan or his picture that makes her fall unconscious. Her seven children—Sahila (12), Shaima (10), Sahil (8), Ikrana (7), Ikran (6), Rehan (4) and the youngest Masira (2)—were all together, sitting and standing next to her khaat (charpoy).

She said it was for the children that Akbar Khan decided to get two more milking cows. “We already have two milking cows, and the third will start giving milk in a couple of months. And we also have two calves. He (Akbar) used to say that if we get two more cows, he would sell the milk,” Asmeena said. “At least with the extra money, we could have taken care of our children’s needs.”

Their house consists of one 15×10 feet room with a shed a few metres away. Akbar shared the plot with his younger brother, while his elder brother Haroon’s family lives in a two-room house right across the road. “He used to earn ₹200-₹250 per day as labour. This one biswa (1/20 of a bigha) plot is all that he owned,” Haroon, 33, told Newslaundry. Haroon drives a JCB machine and appeared slightly better off, compared to Akbar’s financial condition. Khan’s mother and father live in the farms and rear goats so they can manage their medical expenses, and don’t end up becoming a burden on their children.

Akbar Khan’s wife Asmeena and seven children

The police has collected a first information report (FIR) registered against Akbar Khan in December 2014, under the sections of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act, 1995. Haroon said the FIR was registered due to some confusion. Khan’s wife, too, claims her husband didn’t leave the house at any odd timing.

Notably, according to the family, the cows that Khan bought were milking cows. The two cows purportedly seized that night are now at the Sudha Sagar cow shelter in Alwar. The police and even the caretaker of the cow shelter, Kapoor Jain, have claimed the cows were non-milking cows.

To this, Asmeena said, “Humari gaay dudh ki thi, ek mahina biyayi hui. Ab woh chahe kuch bhi diyo dein. Jab unhe jaan se maar diyo to ab kuch bhi dikha dein (Ours was a one-month milking cow. Now those who have killed my husband can surely change the cow and make any claims).”

The versions of what transpired that night vary from person to person. It’s also because the only eyewitness to the incident, Aslam, is staying away from the media. Khan’s relatives said the cow vigilantes in Lalawandi had even fired shots in the air.

Aslam’s statement was recorded on July 22 in Ferozepur Jhirka, and social activist Ramzan Chaudhary had accompanied him. Chaudhary told Newslaundry, “Aslam in his statement said as they reached Lalawandi with two cows, suddenly a motorcycle crossed. This resulted in the cows running away into the cotton fields. Nearly 5-7 persons, who also fired in the air, approached them, and started to assault them.” While Aslam managed to flee, Khan was mercilessly thrashed. Khan’s post-mortem confirmed 13 injuries and 750 ml blood in the chest and congestion in the left lung.

While leaders from different political parties have started to visit their house, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from both states is yet to meet the grieving family.

Meanwhile, villagers and even Khan’s relatives said vigilantes run amok in Rajasthan’s Alwar because leaders from the BJP have been giving them protection. Khan brother-in-law, Khurshid, levelled serious allegations against the BJP Alwar lawmaker. He said, “The attackers were saying they know the MLA, Gyandev Ahuja, and nothing will happen to them. All this is happening due to political patronage to the criminals.”

Read: #AlwarLynching: In Gau Raksha land, police works along with the accused