PTI, NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today asked the Rajasthan government to state within a week what action it has taken in the case of the alleged lynching of dairy farmer Rakbar Khan on July 20, following its directions on the incidents of cow vigilantism.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the plea of Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the state’s officials including the Chief Secretary and the DGP for alleged violation of the top court’s verdict in the Alwar lynching case.
The apex court had on July 17 said that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, besides asking the Centre to consider enacting a new law to sternly deal with such cases.
The bench, which also comprised Justices AM Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, also took note of the fact that only Maharashtra, Punjab and Chandigarh had filed compliance reports after the court had directed all states and union territories to take steps to deal with the offences of mob violence and cow vigilantism and file a compliance report by today.
It directed Rajasthan’s Principal Secretary of Home department to file an affidavit within seven days detailing the action taken by the state government in the case. It also asked the remaining states to file their compliance reports by September 7.
At the outset, senior advocate Indira Jaising sought criminal action against those police officers who had failed to take the Alwar victim to hospital in time, which had led to his death.
Poonawala, in his plea, said the 28-year old dairy farmer Rakbar Khan was attacked by a group of cow vigilantes in Lalwandi village of Ramgarh district in Rajasthan on July 20, three days after the apex court had delivered a detailed verdict.
Khan, a resident of Haryana and his friend Aslam, were transporting two cows to Kolgaon through a forest area when the mob had attacked them apprehending that they were taking the animals for slaughter, it said.
