On August 23, a class-12 student named Aryan Mishra from Faridabad, Haryana, was chased and shot dead by members of a cow vigilante group near Gadhpuri, Haryana.
The incident took place along the Delhi-Agra highway, where the accused pursued the victim’s car for nearly 30 kilometers. The vigilante group members have been identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh, and Saurabh, according to NDTV.
Police sources have reported that the weapon used in the killing was illegal. All the accused are in police custody, and the investigation is ongoing.
The vigilantes had received information that cattle ‘smugglers’ were leaving the city in a Renault Duster and a Toyota Fortuner after picking up cattle. The group, while searching for these ‘smugglers,’ spotted the Duster car at Patel Chowk, where the victim was traveling with his friends, Shanky and Harshit.
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The vigilantes ordered Aryan and his friends to stop their car, but they did not comply, believing they were being pursued by a rival gang with whom Shanky had a feud. The group of friends feared that Shanky’s rivals were out to kill them.
When the car continued to flee, the vigilantes fired shots from behind, with one bullet hitting Aryan near the neck. As the car eventually stopped, the vigilantes shot Aryan again, fearing that his friends might retaliate. Upon discovering two women inside the vehicle, they realized they had shot the wrong person and fled the scene. Aryan was rushed to a nearby hospital but died the following day.
In response to the incident, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind suggested that the “mob lynching” could have been orchestrated to create communal tensions ahead of the state assembly elections. “Merely condemning the act is insufficient… This mob violence demonstrates how communal elements perceive themselves as above the law, taking matters into their own hands and targeting specific communities with cruelty,” said Jamiat chief Maulana Arshad Madani.
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