Advocate Nasir Ali Naqvi, who is the public prosecutor in the case, said he would not be able to appear in the case unless his fee and conveyance bills were cleared.
TCN Special Correspondent
JAIPUR (RAJASTHAN) — A senior advocate appointed as the special public prosecutor (SPP) in the Rakbar Khan lynching case has claimed that the Rajasthan government was not interested in contesting the case.
Rakbar Khan, a resident of Haryana, was brutally assaulted by a mob on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan in 2018. He later died of his injuries while in police custody.
Mohan Singh, an assistant sub-inspector, had at the time admitted that there had been a delay in taking Khan to the hospital. He was suspended and three other personnel were transferred.
Advocate Nasir Ali Naqvi, who was appointed as the SPP in the case in 2021 by the Rajasthan government, said in a letter to the Alwar superintendent of police that his fee and conveyance bills have been pending for a long time.
Naqvi told TwoCircles.net that he was not paid his fees despite repeated requests.
Naqvi said his fees and conveyance bill worth Rs 3 lac have not been paid since he was appointed in the case in 2021.
He said that he will stop appearing in the case if his dues are not cleared.
“My fee and conveyance bills are pending for a long time and my fee is not paid to me despite my repeated requests. As I am residing in Jaipur and after the decision of the case, it will not be possible for me to come to Alwar to pursue the payment of my bills. I also reveal that the government is not interested in contesting the case. In such an eventuality, I am not able to appear in the case in future” Navi wrote in a letter, which was also marked to the Alwar collector and other state officials.
Breaking:
Days after #Bharatpur killings, Special Public Prosecutor in 2018 #Rakbar lynching case, Nasir Ali Naqvi, slams Rajasthan government for non cooperation, payment of bills, says "government is not interested to contest the case."@IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/TSYY2kQlEz
— Hamza Khan (@Hamzwa) February 22, 2023
“The accused will definitely get acquitted if I don’t appear in the case. The government knows what it wants to do with the case. The government should be asked about it, not me. It’s not my personal case. I was appointed by the government to contest the case,” he said.
He has sought an appointment with chief minister Ashok Gehlot to talk about the issue.
“When I meet the chief minister, I will raise this issue,” said Naqvi.
Naqvi had written a letter to the district collector in late 2022 pointing out non-coordination from the administration in the case. At that time too, he had accused the administration of showing no interest in the case and allowing the accused to be let off.
Naqvi was appointed as the prosecutor when 75-year-old Habiban Khan, the mother of Rakba, had accused the Additional District Judge of bias.
In an application to Alwar’s District and Sessions Judge Sangeeta Sharma, she had requested the transfer of the case to another court.
“The accused tell us that they have managed the presiding officer and now the judgment will be in their favour,” reads her application.
In July 2018, Rakbar Khan along with his friend Aslam Khan were assaulted by a mob in Lalwandi of Rajasthan’s Alwar district on the accusation of cow smuggling. Aslam had managed to escape but Rakbar was beaten brutally by the mob. He later succumbed to his injuries.
An FIR was filed under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Four men namely Paramjeet Singh, Dharmendra, Naresh and Vijay were arrested and later charge-sheeted. A
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Nawal Kishore Sharma, chief of the VHP’s gau rakshak cell in Alwar’s Ramgarh, had allegedly led the mob.
Talking about the status of the case in his letter, Naqvi noted, “It is respectfully informed to you that the State Government appointed me as Special Public Prosecutor in Mob Lynching case i.e. State Vs. Dharmendra & Ors., pending in the court of Additional Sessions Judge No.1, Alwar. After my appointment, I’m regularly appearing in the case. The prosecution evidence has been completed. Now the case is in defence evidence. The case is now at fag end”.
Notably, the public prosecutor’s claims that the Rajasthan government is not interested in contesting Rakbar Khan’s lynching case come at a time when the state government is being slammed for inaction in the brutal killing of two Muslim men in Haryana last week allegedly by cow vigilantes.