Ashok Gehlot welcomes Rajasthan HC decision to quash cattle smuggling charges, says FIR against Pehlu Khan conspiracy to protect real culprits

New Delhi: Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot welcomed the High Court’s decision to dismiss the FIR and charge-sheet against Pehlu Khan in a cattle smuggling case. The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday dismissed the FIR and the charge-sheet against Khan, his two sons and the driver of the vehicle in the case. Two FIRs were filed in the case – one against the attackers and the other accusing Khan and his sons of allegedly transporting cattle without requisite permissions. [caption id=“attachment_4290751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress leader Ashok Gehlot. Twitter@ashokgehlot51[/caption] Speaking to ANI Gehlot said, “Whenever mob lynching is reported in future, Khan will be remembered by the governments and police. In this case, no FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) report was made and there was no proper investigation as well. So our government formed a SIR and made an appeal in the High Court.” “The decision will be welcomed across the country. A conspiracy was hatched and a false case was filed to protect the real culprits in the Pehlu Khan case,” he added. Gehlot further stated that the Rajasthan government has made laws for both, honour killing and mob lynching. “Rajasthan is the first state in India to introduce the facility of registering the FIR at the SP office if the police are not registering it in the respective police station,” said Gehlot. “Two bills – for honour killing and mob lynching are still lying in the home ministry and I don’t know why these bills have not been passed till now,” he added. On 14 October, the Rajasthan government had filed an appeal in the High Court challenging the acquittal of six accused by a lower court in connection with the lynching of Pehlu Khan in 2017. An SIT, which was set up to probe and identify lapses and irregularities in the police investigation in the lynching case, had in September submitted its report to the state government. The state government had announced constitution of the SIT to probe afresh the case after a Rajasthan court on 14 August acquitted all six men accused of lynching Pehlu Khan on the benefit of the doubt. On 1 April in 2017, Khan, a 55-year-old dairy farmer from Haryana’s Nuh, was beaten up by self-styled cow vigilantes near Behror in Rajasthan on Delhi-Alwar highway. He had succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital two days later. Video of the incident that had also gone viral showed Khan being beaten up by a mob, thrown to the ground and kicked. Three, of the nine people accused of his murder, were underage.