Tehseen Poonawalla, petitioner against mob lynching, lambasted state governments for not providing monetary relief to victims of cow vigilantism
Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Sep 23: The family of slain dairy farmer Pehlu Khan has welcomed the Supreme Court order directing the state governments to provide monetary compensation to victims of cow vigilantism. The family has demanded the Rajasthan government to act upon the SC order. Its sole bread-earner Khan, 55, was lynched by a brutal mob of Gau Rakshaks in the Alwar district of the state in April this year.
“Till today, we have not got any compensation — neither from Rajasthan government nor from the government of Haryana (family is resident of Mewat, Haryana),” said Irshad Khan, eldest son of Pehlu Khan while talking to IndiaTomorrow.net over phone on Saturday.
More than five months have passed since the incident but the government of Rajasthan where the crime took place has not offered any compensation to the victim family.
“We should get justice and legitimate compensation should be given to us. The order of Supreme Court is appreciable. There must be separate district level officers to look into the cases of cow vigilantism so that the fraud Gau Rakshaks can be controlled,” demanded Irshad who was also brutally assaulted along with his father on 1st April in Alwar (Rajasthan) while they were returning to Haryana after purchasing some cows and calves from a government-run cattle fare in Jaipur. His father succumbed to injuries in hospital two days later.
On Friday (22 Sep), the Supreme Court said that states were obliged to compensate the victims of cow vigilante groups and asked all of them to file a report on the compliance of its order by appointing a nodal officer to prevent violence by such vigilante groups.
“Victims are to be compensated. It is obligatory on the part of the state to compensate the victim of crime,” said the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the state is under obligation to have a scheme for victim compensation and if they don’t have then they should have one, it added.
Senior counsel Indira Jaising, appearing for Tushar Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, had urged the apex court to order compensation to the victims of violence by the vigilante groups.
States have no political will to compensate such victims: Tehseen Poonawalla
Businessman and social activist Tehseen Poonawalla, who is a petitioner in the Supreme Court in a case against mob lynching by Gau Rakshaks, also hailed the SC order.
“I am very grateful to the Supreme Court for the direction that it is has given. However, it is a matter of great regret and disappointment that it has been one year since the SC began looking into the case of Gau Rakshaks, yet despite the notice to the government it has still not replied to the court,” said Poonawalla.
Tehseen Poonawalla (extreme left) with Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and family members of Pehlu Khan in Delhi
On why no compensation has been given to the victims of such cases though the law is already there, he said: “States have no political will while the CrPc prescribes this. Since that clause is arbitrary that is why we want that it be made compulsory through MASUKA, so the victim can get a minimum compensation of Rs 25 lac.”
Poonawalla and his team recently prepared a draft law by the name of Manav Suraksha Kanoon or MASUKA and sent to the government and opposition parties to table it in the Parliament.
On the appointment of nodal officers in each district to prevent violence by cow vigilante groups Poonawalla said: “It should be helpful. It is a first step but there are many steps ahead on which we will urge the Supreme Court in next hearing.”
In the last hearing of the matter on September 6, the top court had said that that cow vigilantism has to stop and directed states/union territories to appoint district nodal officers to take steps to prevent and act against perpetrators of such violence.
“This must stop. What action have you taken? It is not permissible. There has to be some kind of action,” the court had said while seeking the response of the state governments.
While directing appointment of nodal officers in each district, the top court had in the last hearing instructed the state Chief Secretaries in coordination with Director Generals of Police to crack down on vigilante groups.
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With inputs from IANS
