Rajasthan HC Quashes Chargesheet Against Pehlu Khan's Family For Cattle Smuggling

The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday quashed a chargesheet against two sons of Haryana resident Pehlu Khan, was lynched by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar district in 2017, for cow smuggling. Although the case goes back to April 2017 when the BJP was in power in the state, the chargesheet was filed months after the Congress took over.

The chargesheet was accepted by the court on May 24 against three persons under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act. Since Pehlu Khan had died, he has not been chargesheeted.

 However, Pehlu Khan's name was mentioned in the summary of the chargesheet. The police maintained that the case against Pehlu Khan, his sons Irshad Khan (25) Aarif Khan (22) and truck operator Khan Mohammad stood proved in the investigation.

They were charged under under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.

Pehlu Khan and his sons were thrashed by a mob on the suspicion of cow smuggling in Alwar's Behror on Aprli 1, 2017.

Pehlu Khan died at a hospital in Alwar on April 3.

The Rajasthan Police registered a case against the people who allegedly lynched Pehlu Khan and thrashed his companions. Six men were named in the FIR which also mentioned about 200 unidentified people.

In August, the Additional Judicial Magistrate acquitted the six men, giving them benefit of the doubt.

The police had then booked 16 people for illegally transporting 36 animals in six vehicles. They were on their way to Nuh district in Haryana from Jaipur when the cow vigilantes stopped two of the vehicles in Behror on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway, thrashing Pehlu Khan and his sons.

(With PTI inputs)