No justice for Pehlu Khan

The Congress government in Rajasthan has not distinguished itself in allowing the Pehlu Khan lynching case to proceed in a predetermined fashion by which the dead man was virtually an accused in the chargesheet filed against his sons. The government has been in place in the State since late last year and even so has allowed the investigation to run its course without making any attempt to probe afresh the horrific incident of April 1, 2017. The blatant attempt to portray the cattle traders as smugglers despite their having receipts for purchase of milch cattle is a pitiable twist to the truth behind the barbaric incident of mob justice with Pehlu Khan dying in the assault by multiple people with rods and sticks. The police seemed complicit in the attack as they first took the cows to a gosala and were said to have imbibed hot beverages before moving the victims to hospital.

It would have been logical for the Ashok Gehlot government, which came to power in December 2018 to have ordered a judicial probe rather than allowed the old prejudices of the police force to prevail. It is not without reason then it is being pointed out that the Congress has behaved no differently from the BJP. The Congress has not shown the moral fibre to take the cow vigilantes head-on without lending any thought to what effect that may have on any polls. Lynching is a bestial practice that has no place in civilised society. Truth to tell, not much has changed despite the uproar over such incidents as the Alwar brutality, which have combined to give India the worst possible image the world over. In fact, by one estimate, there have been as many as 11instances of lynching in 2019, including the most recent one in which a suspected thief was done to death in Jharkhand. It is the enabling of an environment for lynching by official India that is frightening.