Pehlu Khan lynching: Rajasthan Police helped accused, says report

On April 1 this year, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten up in front of 200 people in Rajasthan’s Alwar and was caught on video. In his dying statement, Khan had named six accused, none of whom were arrested as they were absconding.  In September, they were exonerated by police. The others accused are now out on bail, free.

Almost seven months later, an independent investigation by journalist Ajit Sahi, which has been endorsed by six rights organisations, has brought out a point-by-point report on how the police investigation worked in favour of the accused.

On April 1, dairy farmer Khan and four others, including two of his sons, were heading home in Haryana from a cattle fair in Jaipur. A group of self-proclaimed cow vigilantes attacked their vehicle in Alwar’s Behror, accusing them of being cattle smugglers. In the video footage, these men can be seen thrashing Khan and damaging his vehicle. Two days later, on April 3, Pehlu succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Days later, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria of the BJP indicted Khan of being a cattle smuggler. Kataria claimed Khan had three cases against him. No wonder, when the accused were given a clean chit by police, Kataria backed the action.

Sahi’s report issued on Thursday pointed at flaws in the entire investigation.  According to the first information report (FIR) registered, the incident took place between 7 and 10 in the evening. But it claims the police received information about the crime only at 3.54 am on April 2. This is despite the fact that the police station where the FIR was registered is barely two km from where Khan was beaten up.

Notably, the police has contradicted itself in its own report. The “final report” filed, on May 31, by Rajasthan Police says Khan gave his statement to the police at 11.50 pm on April 1 at Kailash Hospital. Khan was admitted after being attacked by the mob. In his statement, Khan said it was the police which took him to the hospital. What could be the motive in changing the time of “information received”?

Also, the report questions, if as claimed by Khan, “policemen were present at the crime scene,” why does the FIR not name them? Why were their statements not recorded in the FIR?

In his dying declaration, Khan had named Om Yadav, Hukum Chand Yadav, Sudhir Yadav, Jagmal Yadav, Naveen Sharma and Rahul Saini as his attackers. Despite this, their names were not registered in the FIR.

“We live 150 kilometres away from the place of the attack. How could my father have known the names of these six? While attacking us, they were calling each other by name. That’s how my father could name them,” Pehlu Khan’s eldest son and eye-witness Irshad Khan told Newslaundry.

The FIR was registered under six Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections – including 308, that is, attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The report contested why the much stringent Section 307, that is, attempt to murder was not registered. Importantly, Section 308 should be invoked when a “grave and sudden provocation” prompts the crime. Sahi asks what could have been the provocation in the case?

However, Section 302, that is, murder, was added in the charge-sheet filed in the court.

Even the exoneration of six accused, named by Khan, raises serious question marks on the investigation. Until exoneration, Jagmal Yadav and five others were absconding, despite this the police didn’t go ahead with other legal recourse available to arrest them. “It is also incomprehensible why the police did not invoke the appropriate legal provisions; including attaching their properties and freezing their bank accounts, to force the surrender of the accused. The police did not even move court for the issuance of warrants of arrest against the men, nor ask the court to order them to surrender before it, remedies available under Sections 82 and 83 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),” reads the report.

According to media reports, the six accused were exonerated on the basis of statements given by policemen and workers of the cowshed that the six were not there. Jagmal Yadav owns the cowshed and the workers are his subordinates, thereby weakening his and others’ alibi.

Supreme Court senior advocate Colin Gonsalves told Newslaundry that the plea of alibi should have been taken only once the case reaches trial. By absolving these six, “the police has sabotaged the case. Besides the accused, the police too is a principle wrongdoer,” said Gonsalves.

Moreover, in the chargesheet filed in May in the Behror court, the police had claimed that it has found evidence against Jagmal and five others. What made the evidence so weak that the police decided to absolve them even before trial began?

This act of Rajasthan Police has jolted the faith of Khan’s family in the investigation. “Those named by my father have been set free by the police. The other accused too have got bail. If we keep waiting, the remaining accused too will be acquitted,” Khan’s 24-year-old son Irshad told Newslaundry. Khan’s widow Zebina too questions the intention of the police. “Those who should have been brought to book have been acquitted. And all these months, not even a single police officer has visited our house to take our statements or to update us about the case.”

The police ignored the post-mortem report of Khan and instead chose to go with statements of doctors of the private hospital where Khan was admitted and succumbed to injuries. “It is important to note that Khan’s post-mortem, conducted by a “medical board” of three government doctors from the Community Health Centre (CHC), Behror, revealed that Khan’s death was indeed caused by the injuries that he had sustained during the attack on him,” reads the report.

The statements of three doctors of the said hospital were recorded in the “final report” filed by police. “General Surgeon Dr V. D. Sharma, in whose care Khan was placed, in his statement claimed that Khan was absolutely fine on April 2 and on the morning of April 3, before dying of a heart attack,” Sahi pointed out in his investigation report. Even though four ribs had been fractured on both sides of Khan’s chest, radiologist Dr RC Yadav said “a sonography, an X-ray and a USG [ultra sonography] revealed that the chest, lungs, and abdomen of Khan were normal with no injuries. The radiologist, therefore, concluded Khan could not die of the injuries.”

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan asked, “How can police go by such ridiculous statements made by the doctors of the private hospital?”

Even though Khan’s family is resolute to get justice; they have little hope left in the legal system of Rajasthan. “The ministers like Gulab Chand Kataria and [Gyan Dev] Ahuja have been making statements which favours those involved in the case. This case should be reinvestigated under the court’s observation. We don’t trust the police’s report,” Irshad said. “We want the case to be shifted to the Supreme Court.”

The organisations, which had come forward to bring out the independent investigation of Pehlu Khan’s case, are examining their legal strategy. “We will soon file the protest petition [against the police’s report] in the lower court,” said civil rights’ activist Teesta Setalvad.