The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
23-year-old arrested in Raipur June 7 ‘lynching’ case, say police
A 23-YEAR-OLD man was arrested on Saturday a fortnight after three cattle transporters from a minority community were killed in Arang area of Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district on June 7, police said.
The accused Harsh Mishra, who is a resident of Raipur city and works in a retail cement shop is the first arrest in the case.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Raipur Rural), Kirtan Rathore confirmed the arrest. Replying to a query if Mishra has a prior criminal record and is associated with any right wing or a cow vigilante group, said, “We are finding that out”.
The accused had been hiding at a female friend’s house in the Borsi area of Durg district to evade arrest, said police.
The accused was produced before a magistrate court on Saturday which remanded him to judicial custody.
A police official said Mishra’s custody was not needed at present.
On June 7, Saddam Qureshi and his cousin Chand Miya Khan (23), both from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district, and Guddu Khan (35) from Shamli district, were transporting cattle when they were allegedly chased by a mob in Raipur.
Later that day, the three were found lying on rocks below a bridge – Qureshi severely injured and the other two dead. Earlier this week, Qureshi died in hospital Tuesday after battling for his life for 10 days.
Providing details about no change in charges against the accused, Rathore said they are yet to ascertain the exact sequence of events and hence the attempt to murder charge for assaulting the third victim, Saddam Qureshi, was not converted to murder after Qureshi succumbed to his injuries. Instead, based on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report, the police have changed the Indian Penal Code 307 (murder attempt) Section to IPC Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide).
Meanwhile, the arrest comes a day after hundreds of people from a minority community, for a second time, protested in Raipur city and later gave a written complaint to the Additional District Magistrate demanding immediate arrest of the accused.
Earlier on June 16, at least 50 people had carried out a protest march to Raj Bhavan, demanding justice in the case