A 19-year-old Class 12 student was shot and killed after he was mistaken for a cattle smuggler in Haryana's Faridabad. The accused chased the victim's car for 25 kilometres before killing him. Five people were arrested in connection with the incident.
Aryan Mishra, the victim, went out with his friends Harshit and Shanky in a Duster car around midnight on August 23 to eat noodles. The accused, identified as cow vigilantes, told police during questioning that they had received information that some cattle smugglers were conducting surveillance in the city using Duster and Fortuner SUVs.
The accused also claimed the alleged cattle smugglers were calling their associates to pick up cows in a truck from isolated areas.
The accused, who were also in a car, spotted the Duster and signalled it to stop. Harshit was driving the Duster, in which Aryan was also present. Shanky and two women were seated in the back of the car.
Police said that Harshit and Shanky had recently been involved in a dispute with a man and a case had been registered against Shanky. When the accused signalled them to stop, the occupants of the Duster mistakenly believed that the same man was confronting them due to a previous dispute. In a bid to escape, they sped away.
The vigilantes, now convinced that the Duster occupants were cattle smugglers, began chasing them. Harshit drove the car for about 25 kilometres and broke through the barrier at the Palwal toll plaza. The accused then opened fire on the Duster and a bullet went through the rear window and struck Aryan, who was sitting shotgun.
After Aryan was shot, Harshit pulled over, but the attackers approached and fired another shot into Aryan's chest, resulting in his death.
A Faridabad Police official said the arrested suspects were identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh and Saurav.
Police said the accused initially tried to mislead them by claiming they had thrown the murder weapon into a canal. However, the weapon was later recovered from Anil's residence.
The incident comes days after a migrant worker was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in Haryana's Charkhi Dadri district over suspicion of consuming beef. Police had arrested seven people for the murder.
Source: India Today