In the 2018 Rakbar Khan lynching case, a court in Alwar, Rajasthan, found four Hindutva men guilty while acquitting one person. On Thursday, the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sunil Kumar Goyal, will soon announce the sentencing for the convicted assailants. Following their guilty verdict, all four, who had previously been released on bail, have now been taken into custody.
“Dharmendra Yadav, Paramjeet, Vijay Kumar, and Naresh Kumar have been held guilty under IPC sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 341 (wrongful restraint). Nawal Kishore has been acquitted on account of insufficient evidence against him,” Special Public Prosecutor Ashok Sharma said.
The maximum punishment may go up to life imprisonment, according to Sharma.
On the night of July 20 and 21, 2018, Rakbar, aged 31, and his companion Aslam Khan, aged 32, were halted by villagers in Lalwandi, located in the Ramgarh police station area of Alwar, while they were on foot transporting cows. Tragically, Rakbar suffered severe assault and passed away from his injuries a few hours later, while Aslam was able to flee. The two Muslim men were en route to their village, Kolgaon, in Haryana, which was approximately a dozen kilometers away from Lalwandi.
The incident had led to an outcry over the alleged delay by the cops in taking Rakbar Khan to the hospital. A judicial probe was also ordered by then Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. Khan’s autopsy report had stated that he died of shock as a result of his injuries.
