Cop’s first priority was never to rush Rakbar to hospital, then what?

JAIPUR: In Alwar’s lynching case, cop’s first priority was never to rush the victim Rakbar Khan alias Akbar to the hsopital but to make arrangements for cows to be rehabilitated and then have a tea break.

A member of the Hindutva gang, Naval Kishore, confirmed that the bovines owned by Akbar, were brought to a nearby ‘gaushala’ at around 3.26 a.m. in a three-wheeler.

The Rajasthan Police on Monday formed a high-level team to probe the reasons for the alleged delay in taking 28-year-old Rakbar to the hospital a man who died after being allegedly lynched by Hindutva mobs.

Director General of Police O.P. Galhotra said the team will find out why there so much time was wasted in transporting Rakbar to a hospital that was just four kilometres from the site where he was beaten up on Saturday.

The team shall include senior officers N.R.K. Reddy, P.K. Singh, Hemant Priyadarshi and Mahendra Singh Chaudhary.

The team has been asked to probe why if the policemen reached the site at 1 a.m., the victim was taken to the hospital only at 4 a.m., said a police official.

It is alleged that the policemen stopped on the way before heading to the hospital to enjoy the much-needed refreshment break even as Akbar cried in pain.

The FIR says that the police reached the site at 12.41 a.m. and the victim was taken by them by 1 a.m.

However, surprisingly, the police reached the hospital at 4 am. The postmortem report says the victim died at 3.40 a.m.

Dr Hasan Ali, who was the duty officer at the CHC, told Times of India, “They (police) brought him at 4 am and as he was brought dead, I directed that the body be shifted to the mortuary.”

A social worker of the region, Vijay Kumar, told IANS that Akbar and Aslam were taking bovines from the fields at midnight. When the animals cried out, some villagers came out and thrashed Akbar.

As it was raining heavily, Akbar fell on the muddy field and his companion Aslam escaped. By then, the police reached the spot.

However, as the victim was covered in mud, the police refused to take him in their vehicle and asked villagers to clean him.

The villagers poured water on him. Dharmendra, who was later taken as an accused by the police, brought clothes from his house.

According to him, when Akbar died, the police came to the village to arrest the witnesses to save their skin.

Alwar Superintendent of Police Rajendra Singh told the media: “We will investigate the matter thoroughly and take action against the accused.”

IANS inputs