SIT finds 29 lapses in Pehlu Khan case probe

Special Investigation Team (SIT) has cited multiple lapses in the police probe into Pehlu Khan lynching case and blamed officers for a “shoddy” investigation. The SIT was set up to look into reasons behind acquittal of six suspects in the 2017 Pehlu Khan case.

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According to Hindustan Times, the SIT submitted 84-page report to the Rajasthan director general of police Bhupendra Singh on Wednesday.

The report recommended “suitable action” after a probe against the erring officials. Confirming the receipt of the report, Singh assured that the department will examine all the recommendations.

The SIT report revealed that the officers committed 29 mistakes. Pointing loopholes by each of the four investigating officers, it stated that the first investigating officer visited the spot where Khan was allegedly assaulted only three days after the crime, but failed to call the forensic team and didn’t order mechanical examination of the two vehicles in which Khan was transporting the cows.

The report added that the second investigating officer overlooked the “shoddy” investigation and failed to “supervise” the investigation properly.

Regarding the third investigating officer, it stated, though he went to the crime spot, he did not record the statements of the eyewitnesses nor he made any effort to correct mistakes in investigation by previous IOs [investigating officers].

The SIT concluded that the fourth investigating officer cleared six people named by Khan in his dying declaration without “any new or solid evidence”.

The SIT report said that the six accused, who were let off by the court on August 14, should also have been charged with sections 395 (dacoity), 147 (rioting) and 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), in addition to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint and damage to property.

Pehlu Khan was attacked by a mob on April 1, 2017, on the Delhi-Jaipur highway near Behror in Rajasthan’s Alwar district while he was transporting cattle from a market in Jaipur to his home in Nuh, Haryana.