Alwar: The Rajasthan Police on Monday said it had detained one person and identified six more for the murder of Ummar Mohammad but had not found any proof to link the accused to cow protection groups.
Ummar, whose body was found near the railway tracks, was shot dead on Friday morning. His family has alleged that he was killed by cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was smuggling cattle.
Alwar SP Rahul Prakash said the person detained has confessed that he along with six others assaulted Ummar and his two associates. He also admitted that they disposed of the body along the railway tracks.
The SP said that the accused has named the other six and police would track them down soon. He, however, did not say why the accused is still being detained and a formal arrest has not been made despite the confession to cops.
He also did not reveal the motive behind the murder and only said that police are “treating it as a murder and no link to gau raksha groups has been found yet.”
He said that during investigation, the police have discovered the "tyreless truck" which was being used to transport the cows. “One alive and five dead cows were recovered,” he said.
“One of the injured, Tahir Muhammad, had several criminal cases pending against him. As the investigation proceeds, we should have more details,” he said.
The incident had taken place in Fahari village near Govindh Gadh in Alwar. Sources said Ummar Muhammad, 35, and the two others were transporting cows from Mewat in Haryana to Bharatpur in Rajasthan, but they were waylaid by the mob and assaulted.
An FIR under sections 147 (rioting), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered on Sunday, two days after the murder.
Official sources have confirmed that Ummar died of a bullet wound. His body was initially in a mortuary at Shehr hospital but was later shifted to Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Jaipur.
Relatives of the victim alleged that policemen too were present when the crime took place but did nothing to stop the attackers. They had refused to take the body for burial till a case was registered and said they would make sure that Ummar’s case does not meet the same fate as that of Pehlu Khan, the dairy farmer who died after being assaulted by cow vigilantes in April this year.
Sher Muhammad, chairman of the Meo Panchayat of Alwar, told News18, “The attack took place around five in the morning. We are calling it a case of lynching too, as they were not only shot, but also beaten up. We will press the charges accordingly.”
After the incident, Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria admitted that such incidents have increased and a crackdown will be done in this case.
"The guilty can be anyone, whether a Gau Rakshak or any criminal, he will not go unpunished. We have not been able to curb such incidents and are looking at increasing facilities," said Kataria.
Comments
0 comment