Gohana, Haryana: Cow vigilantes on Thursday mistaken a college student for a journalist and stabbed him multiple times with knives for not taking photographs of their ongoing protest. Shivam, a BA second-year student is now in a critical condition at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi.
Shivam had visited the event with a journalist and was playing with his camera. The Gau Raksha Seva Dal were in a protest demanding sedition charges against Congress workers in Kerala for publicly slaughtering a cow last Saturday in response to the new norms of ‘no slaughter’.
Gau Rakshaks asked Shivam to take photographs of them handing a memorandum to district officials and presumed him as a photographer. When Shivam reportedly refused, it triggered an argument. However, people who were gathered there had calmed down the situation.
Police said that the gau rakshaks followed him after the protest, grabbed him in a market, and stabbed his stomach and chest with knives, HT reported.
“He was admitted to the local hospital initially but taken to Delhi because of his condition,” police inspector Ajaib Singh said.
The 19-year-old Mohit was arrested as the main suspect. But two others relatives of Mohit, are absconding. A case of “attempt to murder” has been lodged against the three people and it mentions the accused as members of the cow protection group.
The protesters’ group disowned the three of them and labelled them as troublemakers who joined the protest, the police inspector said. The protest was organised by a group against beef festivals in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The number of such groups is increasing day by day. They thrash men they accuse, often without proof, of slaughtering cows or carrying the animals to slaughterhouses.