The Hindu : Police officials to be chargesheeted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

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Police officials to be chargesheeted

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH DEC. 9. The Haryana Government, which has accepted the report submitted by the Rohtak Division Commissioner, R.R. Banswal, about the circumstances leading to the lynching of five persons at Dulina in Jhajjar district on October 15, has decided to chargesheet the guilty police officers as well as the Executive Magistrates who were present on the spot for their failure in responding properly to the situation.

Mr. Banswal, in his three-volume report, said that one of the victims, Kailash, had bought the animal skins from a licensed contractor at Farukhnagar along with a dead cow, which was emitting a bad odour. He had loaded them on a hired four-wheeler. He was accompanied by Virender Singh and Daya Chand, authorised licencees for lifting the dead animals, Raju, cleaner, and Tota Ram, driver of the four-wheeler.

When the five were skinning the dead cow on the Faruknagar-Jhajjar Road near the Dulina police post, a crowd beat them up and brought them to the police post.

Mr. Banswal said they were not slaughtering or skinning a live cow as alleged by some people. He also termed as false newspaper reports, which said a dispute arose between police and one of the five on the quantum of `nazrana' (bribe). He did not find any substance in the version that one of the five had died in police custody and the other four were handed over by police to the crowd.

According to the post-mortem examination report, the cow died in the wee hours of October 15. The crowd presumed the five persons to be cow slaughterers and ``it was possible that their sentiments were hurt''.

The size of the crowd outside the police post swelled and the atmosphere became surcharged. By 8 p.m., over a hundred people had collected and when the lynching occurred between 9-45 p.m. and 10-15 p.m., the number had increased to nearly 1500.

Mr. Banswal said that police personnel at the post did not correctly assess the seriousness of the situation. They not only gave sufficient time for the crowd to collect, but also did not shift the victims to a safer place or a hospital for medical aid.

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