Rajasthan village looted, ransacked as revenge for ‘slaughtered cows’

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IndiaTomorrow.net,
Revadavas, Alwar, Sep 20: When you enter this village your first impression would be this: It was either destroyed by tsunami or earthquake. But you are completely wrong. The Revadavas village was almost literally run over by an army of cow vigilantes allegedly in the presence of the police on 15 Sep. Almost every house in the village, dominated by Mewati Muslims, was looted, ransacked and some of them were partially demolished with heavy construction tools including JCB machine.

Why all this? Some cows were allegedly slaughtered in Gidawra jungle near Raghunathgarh colony by some Mewati Muslims of Revadavas village under Nauganwa police station in Alwar district of Rajasthan in the night of 14 Sep, the second day of Eid Al Adha.

What FIR says?
As per the FIR lodged by the police at the Nauganwa police station, the police got information at 10:15 PM on 14 Sep about alleged slaughter of cows in the Gidawra jungle near Raghunathgarh Colony village. Instantly, half a dozen armed policemen were dispatched to the spot. After reaching there at 10:45 PM, Police say they found “20-25 people from the Mew community were slaughtering cows.” As they reached closer, the people tried to flee, but the police was able to catch 12 of them. The police found one big cow and five calves tied with ropes and put down on the ground for slaughter. The police rescued them and sent them to a gaushala (cow shelter).

The police also say it found several dead cows lying in the drain near the spot. They had been slaughtered and their necks were cut off. There were five big cows and 31 calves. The police took out the dead cows from the drain through JCB machine. The police claimed it conducted post-mortem of the dead cows on the spot and then buried all of them.

The police lodged FIR against 22 persons – 12 of them were arrested on the spot – under Sections 3,5,7 and 8 of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of slaughter & regulation of temporary migration or export) Act – 1995. The police have identified the arrested ones as Noor Mohammad, Shaukat Ali, Javed, Hakmuddin, Fakruddin, Khurshid Khan, Irfan, Rashid, Amin, Sajid Khan, Altaf and Shaukeen.


A ransacked house in the village.
Accounts of FIR questioned
However, two separate groups of social activists who visited the village on 16 Sep and 18 Sep have questioned the facts of FIR and also recorded the destruction at the village.

A group of social activists led by Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD visited the place on 16 Sep and wrote a letter to Alwar Superintendent of Police seeking probe into the alleged slaughter of cows and attack on village by cow vigilantes.

“There is a need to probe all aspects in the condemnable act of beheading of cows and their burial. There is no such tradition of sacrifice in Islam. Never before have we seen any such case where in the name of sacrifice, animals are beheaded and buried in the soil. It seems suspicious and so there is a need for a thorough probe,” the activists said.

A goat was also killed by the attackers.

They also gave details about the loot and destruction of scores of Muslim homes in the village and demanded a probe.

Another group of civil fact-finding team visited the village on 18 Sep.

They also questioned the police claim about post-mortem of dead cows. A copy of FIR shows it was registered at 9:30 AM on 15 Sep. But police in the same FIR, while giving details of the incident, said it reached the spot at 10:45 PM on 14 Sep and did post-mortem of the dead cows on the spot.


Member of one of victim families

“FIR claimed about post-mortem on the spot before 9:30 AM next day. Locals and lawyers of villagers say how come post-mortem happened before filing of FIR (which was filed next day at 9:30 AM),” said fact-finding team.

30 houses looted, ransacked and damaged
Giving details of the destruction they said: “14th September night, second day of Eid Azha, became A terror night for Revadavas village.”

“House of Noora Khan was damaged fully through heavy weapons even mob used JCB also. Noora Khan and Akhteri have three sons Zubair, Liyaqat and Gaffar. Many small kids aged 13 to 2 years are not having single clothes on their body. All house hold destroyed, cash looted. Mostly the poor have silver ornament — all looted in the name of Gau Raksha,” the team said in a report.

Contrary to the police version about the arrest of 12 persons, the civil fact-finding report said those people were arrested from their homes 4-5 km from the spot.

“In the name of Gauraksha they attacked more than 30 houses and damaged all house hold of poor villagers like coolers, freeze, kitchen items, storage tubs. They looted cash and attacked on females,” said Er. Rashid Hussain, a member of the civil fact-finding team and Rajasthan president of Welfare Party of India.

House of Sharief, Salim, Hameedan, wife of Khursheed was attacked and all valuables destroyed.

As the mob came, the villagers fled to the nearby jungle.

“They destroyed more than 30 houses – either it is kacha house or pacca house,” it said.

Other members of the team were Mukesh Goswami from Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Samiti, IRS Abhijeet, State Secretary, Buddh Mahasabha, Noor Mohammed from PUCL and Mohammad Nazimuddin from Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
A copy of FIR lodged by Police at Nauganwa police station in Alwar district


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