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Business News/ News / India/  Rajasthan court acquits six accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case
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Rajasthan court acquits six accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case

The 6 accused of the total 9 were acquitted on the grounds of ‘reasonable doubt’
  • Pehlu Khan’s family may appeal against the verdict in the high court
  • A file photo of Alwar lynching victim Pehlu Khan's family members sitting at a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 19, 2017. (PTI)Premium
    A file photo of Alwar lynching victim Pehlu Khan's family members sitting at a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 19, 2017. (PTI)

    NEW DELHI : Additional district judge Dr Sarita Swami in Alwar on Wednesday acquitted the six accused persons of the total 9 accused in the Pehlu Khan lynching case. Two years ago Khan was allegedly killed by a cow vigilante’s mob near Delhi-Alwar highway.

    Khan with his two sons was transporting cows while he was attacked near Behror on April 1, 2017. He died on April 3. The family of the victim, his lawyer and the additional public prosecutor Yogendra Khatana are very disappointed with the judgment. Khatana told reporters that the prosecution shall appeal against this verdict in the high court.

    The three accused out of the nine were juveniles, hence not prosecuted before the additional district judge. The 6 accused were acquitted on the grounds of “reasonable doubt".

    A video showing Khan been dragged from his truck and beaten up went viral on social media. The man who made the video did not testify in the court and the video was not clear enough to identify the accused persons. This created the grounds for doubts on the evidence. Hukam Chand Sharma, defence lawyer, told the court that Khan had not named the accused in the first statement given to the police. There were discrepancies in the medical reports provided by the government hospital and the post-mortem report by the forensic team. Hospital reported the cause of death as heart attack while the post-mortem report showed the death due to injuries from the assault. The family of the victim claimed that evidence did not reach the forensic lab on time. The family also claimed that the police was negligent and unprofessional while handling this case.

    As per the reports, the accused person raised their hands in victory and shouted “Bharat Mata ki Jai" as soon as the verdict was pronounced in the court on Wednesday.

    “I have closely followed the case and this is welcomed verdict by the court. The case was filed under political pressure and the people named were innocent. In fact the ADJ has been very heroic, as she delivered the judgment fearlessly without any political pressure. People should think for themselves that how can a stranger name 20 people as accused when he is entering an area for the first time..," said Alwar Bar Association secretary Sanjeev Karagwal to Mint. He added, “that this case could have resulted into a media trial but the strong verdict of the court has put an end to that."

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    Published: 14 Aug 2019, 07:28 PM IST
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