Rajasthan: Man killed for transporting cows was 'habitual cattle smuggler'

Jaipur: The two men who were arrested for killing 32-year-old Ummar and assaulting two others, on Friday, for transporting cows have identified themselves as "gau rakashaks" and confessed to crime, the Alwar police said on Tuesday.

Police also found that the truck used for transporting cows was stolen and that Ummar and his two companions, Tahir and Javed were "habitual" cattle smugglers, an Indian Express report read.

“We have arrested Ramveer Gujjar and Bhagwan Singh, both in their thirties, who have confessed to the assault. They are residents of villages which are near the village where the assault took place,” Alwar Additional Superintendent of Police, Mool Singh Rana, said.

“They told us that they had spotted an empty pick-up truck passing through their villages, and suspected that it would return with cows. They planned to waylay it if it returned with cows. When it did, they first threw nails in its path, but the pick-up truck moved on for a few metres,” said Rana.

“The gau rakshaks claimed that the people in the pick-up truck first fired at them, and so they returned fire. We have identified their four accomplices and efforts are on to nab them,” he added.

The arrested duo confessed that they mutilated Ummar's body and left it near the railway tracks to make it look like an accident, the report said.

They have been booked under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence).

Confirming that Tahir and Javed were habitual smugglers, Rana said that the stolen pick-up truck was from Uttar Pradesh and its numberplate belonged to a motorcycle.

The duo would be arrested soon, Rana added.

On Friday, Ummar, 32, died of a bullet wound. His body was found on the railway track around 12 km from the Ramgarh police station. The post-mortem is yet to be conducted.

The latest incident comes months after Pehlu Khan, the dairy farmer, and at least four others in Alwar were brutally beaten to death by a mob of 15 gau rakshaks from Haryana on April 5.

Pehlu Khan was transporting cows in vehicles on the Behror highway in Alwar.