Minor dies by suicide after assaulted by cow vigilantes, no arrest even 20 days later

New Delhi: A seventeen-year-old from Ghalanimb village in Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra, who was assaulted by cow vigilantes, died by suicide on October 28 after videos of the incident and messages calling him a “Hindu Dalal” began circulating on social media, The Wire reported. 

On October 27, he had left home at around 11 am driving his father’s Tata Ace goods vehicle tempo to deliver a local cow from Guha village in Rahuri taluka to his uncle’s house in Chandewadi when a group of cow vigilantes stopped his vehicle on the Kolhar–Rajuri road.

Discovering that he was ferrying a cow, the group including Dinesh Rakhecha, Prashant Rakhecha, Sanket Kharde, Saurabh Lahamge and a few unidentified individuals, started abusing and beating him, asking details of his name, village, age and driving-license and sought him to pay Rs 5,000.

When he said he had no money, the men called the police. Officers from Loni police station reached the spot and took the victim, along with the cow and the vehicle, to the police station.

A case was registered against him under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (Sections 181 and 3(1)), for driving without a licence, and under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976 (Sections 5, 5(C), 9 and 12(A)), for alleged illegal transportation of cattle.

However no charges or action were taken against the cow vigilantes who assaulted him.

When the videos and messages calling him “Hindu Dalal’ began circulating on the night of assault, the minor reportedly suffered severe mental distress and the next morning, i.e. October 28, around 11 am, the victim died by hanging himself.

The victim’s cousin brother Amol told Wire that the victim was ferrying the cow after ‘His uncle had asked had asked him to bring a local breed of cow from Guha village and deliver it to his home in Chandewadi village.’

‘The post-mortem (PM) report only mentioned that he died by ‘hanging’. Those cow vigilantes had beaten him, and they had even made videos of the assault. His leg was fractured, there were marks from the beating on his back, and his thumb was injured, but none of this was shown in the report,’ Amol reportedly said.

His family demanded police to file a case against the cow vigilantes over his death alongside for assaulting him and circulating his video on social media.

When the family refused to perform his final rites demanding to file a case against the group, the Loni police filed an FIR against four individuals on October 29.

Almost 20 days have passed since the FIR was filed, police have not yet arrested any of the accused. When asked about the inaction, inspector Kailas Wagh of the station told The Wire ‘The Loni police are searching for the accused. They have not been found yet.’