advertisement
“With faith and hope, we approached the Jaipur High Court for justice after all the accused were acquitted last year. Took several trips to Jaipur, taking loans to spend for travel and meals, to file our appeal and meet our lawyer. Due to COVID-19, everything is moving very slowly,” Pehlu Khan’s elder son, 28-year-old Irshad tells The Quint from his residence in Mewat, Haryana.
Irshad and his brother, Arif, were also present and beaten up the same day dairy farmer Pehlu Khan suffered grievous injuries at the hands of cow vigilantes on 1 April in Mewat. While both sons fully recovered, Khan succumbed to his injuries at a hospital on 3 April 2017.
“The day everyone was acquitted was a very painful one for us. We were all shattered. How could the authorities not do their jobs properly. There was also a scary mob of people chanting Jai Shri Ram at the court when the verdict was announced. We were, however, never confused about our decision to file an appeal,” said Irshad. His Jaipur-based lawyer, Nasir Ali Naqvi, practising in Jaipur high court, told The Quint where the case now stands.
This was also confirmed by the lawyer of the accused, Hukum Chand Sharma.
“Due to COVID-19 and the lockdown, courts are not functioning as they used to. But we are not discouraged by this. I am the one who keeps a tab on the case and goes whenever asked,” said Irshad, speaking about the sluggish pace of the appeal.
Before COVID-19 halted all activity in the country in March, Irshad travelled 240 kilometers to Jaipur from his village in Mewat’s Jaisinghpur to meet the lawyers.
“As many people could fit in a car, would get together and go. Initially we did this, as after the acquittal we were worried about our safety. So we wanted to ensure as many people stuck together.” Irshad said he went at least five times to Jaipur since the acquittal August 2019. “Everytime we go, we spend around Rs 9,000, the rent to go and come, stay there for a night, eat and return. It takes that much.”
He has a loan of about Rs 70,000 on him, most of which have been spent on these travels. He said he cannot even think of repaying the moneylenders currently. “Thankfully, these people also do not ask me. Otherwise what would I do,” he said, adding that Naqvi has not charged him a penny yet.
While Irshad is waiting for the pandemic to die down so he can resume his journey to bring his father’s killers to justice, Sharma believes this case was blown out of proportion, “Appeals are a part of the judicial process. It was highlighted only because of political motives, as it was a case of mob lynching and made headlines.”
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)