After almost two years of proceedings, an Indian court has acquitted all six men accused of lynching Pehlu Khan, a 55 year old Muslim man, who was accused of “planning to slaughter cows”. Interestingly, the incident was recorded on CCTV cameras, whereas the victim’s family also produced forty four witnesses in the court.
Khan was resident of Haryana, who was thrashed by a cow vigilante mob on April 1, 2017 when he was transporting cattle in a van. Even though Khan had told the crowd “he was bringing the cows from a cattle fair, but they had screamed that he was planning to slaughter the cattle for beef”, which initiated the attack.
With such developments, many argue that India is losing its claim of being a secular democracy, especially when the country has witnessed a spike in minority mob lynchings.
The decision has invited strong criticism from Indian activists:
