Cow vigilantes beat truck conductor to death; five held

Haryana Police arrest cow vigilantes for kidnapping and killing truck driver suspected of cow smuggling in Palwal.

The Haryana Police have arrested five alleged “gau rakshaks” (cow vigilantes) for kidnapping a truck driver and a conductor on suspicion of cow smuggling in Palwal over a week ago. They brutally beat up the duo, leading to the death of one of them.

The accused threw the duo into a canal, assuming both of them dead, but driver Balkishan managed to swim to safety and lodged a police complaint. The body of his companion, Sandeep, the conductor, was fished out from the canal on March 2, eight days after the incident.

The accused, associated with a cow protection group, assaulted the duo with lathis, swords and hammers to cause them multiple fractures and stab injuries, said a police officer deployed in Palwal CIA, not willing to be identified. The body of Sandeep was found around 15 km from the spot where it was dumped after a week-long combing operation, the officer said.

In a copycat case, a teenager and his friends were chased by five persons for several km before he was allegedly shot dead on suspicion of being a cow smuggler in neighbouring Faridabad six months ago.

In the present case, three of the accused — Pankaj, Nikhil, Devraj — belong to Palwal and the two, Pawan and Naresh, are residents of Gurugram and Nuh respectively.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime, Manoj Verma said the duo were transporting two dairy cattle in a pickup truck from Rajasthan to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on February 22 night when they lost their way and ran into the accused, who were riding motorcycles.

The members of the alleged cow protection group kidnapped the two on suspicion of cow smuggling, beat them up and threw them into a canal in Gurugram’s Sohna.