The family of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was allegedly lynched by a mob in September last year on a suspicion that he had consumed and stored beef, on Tuesday said that the reported ‘beef’ samples were not recovered from their home and were part of a conspiracy to frame the family.
“The sample was not taken from our home. It was taken from outside and police have said this in their report,” Mohammad Akhlaq’s son Sartaj told news agency ANI.
Sartaj, a corporal with the Indian Air Force, said, “That sample was taken from outside which somebody had planted. We do not care what the forensic report says because the sample was not from our house.”
Sartaj said that he will challenge a Greater Noida court’s order that directed the police to lodge an FIR against the family for alleged cow slaughter.
Alleging a conspiracy against his family, Sartaj questioned, “Is the government blind? Is our judicial system blind?”
Mohammad Akhlaq, a resident of Dadri’s Bisada village, was allegedly lynched by a mob in September last year on a suspicion that he had consumed and stored beef.
The police later arrested a few persons from the village, including son of a Bhartiya Janata Party leader.
Police had taken samples of meat recovered from Akhlaq’s home as well as a place near his house where carcass of an animal was found. A government laboratory confirmed that the meat samples it received for testing were of “a cow or its progeny”. It, however, did not specify if the samples were from Akhlaq’s home or from outside.
Residents of Bisada village later moved to a local court seeking FIR against Akhlaq’s family for alleged cow slaughter.
Bisada resident Surajpal Singh (65) had filed the complaint in the court on June 9 on behalf of the villagers.
Judicial magistrate Vijay Kumar at the Surajpur district court issued the order on June 9 that an FIR be registered under laws related to cow slaughter and animal cruelty against the 50-year-old and six members of his family.
“The court on Thursday directed that an FIR be registered against seven persons — deceased Mohammad Akhlaq, his mother Asgari, wife Ikraman, daughter Shaista, son Danish Mohammad, brother Jaan Mohammad and his nephew’s wife Sona,” said Yusuf Saifi, the Akhlaq family’s lawyer.
