Rakbar in a police jeep on the night of the assault. The photo was released by Nawal Kishore Sharma, who alert... Read More

MEWAT: “The MLA is with us, nobody can do anything to us. Put him (Rakbar) on fire.” These were the words used by the gau rakshaks who lynched Rakbar , his friend Aslam , an eyewitness who survived, said in his police complaint.

The local MLA is Gyandev Ahuja of BJP . He was the first to defend the gau rakshaks. Ahuja, however, rubbished the claim and said it was an attempt by corrupt cops to malign him.

On Sunday, police recorded the statement of Aslam, who gave the names of five attackers. So far, three have been arrested.

Cops pressured Aslam to give false statement: MLA

Aslam had accompanied Rakbar to Alwar to buy cows, and had seen a group of men following them on their way back.

According to his statement (a copy is with TOI), they were walking back with the two cows and two calves via village Lalwandi. On the way, a motorcycle crossed them. Its loud noise startled the cattle, which ran into cotton fields near the road. There were seven men in the fields, he said, of whom five called each other by the following names: Dharmendra Yadav, Paramjeet Singh, Naresh, Vijay and Suresh.

These men threw Rakbar to the ground and started hitting him with sticks, while the other two watched. Aslam hid in the fields and heard the attackers saying, “The MLA is with us, nobody can do anything...” Aslam later managed to escape.

The police statement has stirred a new conspiracy. Previously, local MLA Gyandev Ahuja had alleged that Rakbar was not killed by gau rakshaks, but had died because of police excesses in custody.

“There’s no doubt the attackers were talking about the local MLA, who has himself issued statements like ‘They were my men. I’d asked them to beat Rakbar a little and hand him over to the cops’,” said Ramzan Choudhary national head of the All India Mewati Samaj.

Ahuja, however, described it as a conspiracy to malign him. “There’s an increase in lynchings in Alwar, sale of synthetic milk has risen, and stone crushers are illegally operating in the area. Ramgarh has the highest crime rate among police stations in my jurisdiction. I’ve been trying to control their corrupt ways, so they put pressure on Aslam to give a false statement. There is no truth in this,” he said.



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