Over a week after a teenager travelling in a car with his friends was chased and shot dead by a gang of five people in Faridabad, the Haryana police on Tuesday claimed that this was a case of mistaken identity with shots being fired due to a “misunderstanding”.
The police said the background of the accused is being verified to find out whether they belonged to any cow protection group, but added that no evidence has emerged to back this theory. The victim’s father, however, claimed that the main accused had confessed in police custody to shooting the teenager because he suspected him and his friends of being cow smugglers
In the early hours of August 24, 19-year-old Aryan Mishra, a Class 12 student, had left his house in a car accompanied by friends, including two women. The accused, travelling in a sedan, tried to flag them down, but the teenager and his friends accelerated. The accused overtook them near a toll plaza in Palwal after a chase of around 25 km and fired shots at them. Mr. Mishra received gunshot injuries in the shoulder and the head. He was declared brought dead at a hospital.
The Faridabad Crime Branch later took over the case, and arrested five people: Anil, Krishan, Varun, Adesh, and Saurabh, all belonging to Faridabad.
‘Mistaken as criminals’
At a press conference on Tuesday (September 3, 2024), Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime, Aman Yadav, claimed that the group of five mistook Mr. Mishra and his friends in the car as criminals, and fired shots at them after a long chase. The police officer said that the accused and the victim did not know each other, and ruled out any conspiracy or personal enmity as motives in the case.
Asked whether the accused were cow vigilantes who mistook the victim and his friends for cow smugglers and so shot at them, Mr. Yadav said their background was being verified, but so far, there was no evidence to suggest that they were linked to any such organisation. He added that both the accused’s version of events and the cow vigilante theory were being verified.
The accused have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. The vehicle and the illegal weapon used in the shooting have been seized. Mr. Yadav said all four shots had been fired by Mr. Anil using his illegal weapon; two of these had hit the victim.
‘No cow smuggling info’
Asked whether the accused had recieved any tip-off about cow smugglers roaming around in a Sports Utility Vehicle of the same model in which the victim and his friends were travelling, Mr. Yadav said the police had not come across any such information in the course of their probe, adding that there had not been any such tip-off given to the Police Control Room on the day of the shooting.
Asked why the victim and his friends had accelerated on being flagged down, the police officer said one of the people in the car, named Shanky, faced murder attempt charges and suspected that the accused could be members of a rival gang.
‘Accused confessed’
Contradicting the police’s version, the victim’s father Siya Nand Mishra told The Hindu over phone that the prime accused, Mr. Anil, had confessed that he had chased and fired at Mr. Aryan Mishra and his friends suspecting them to be cow smugglers. This confession was made in his presence after Mr. Anil was arrested and taken into police custody on August 30, the victim’s father said.
Mr. Anil’s mother Rajesh Devi also told a Hindi news channel that her son was a “gau rakshak (cow vigilante)“ and had chased the victim and his friends suspecting them to be cow smugglers, but denied that he had opened fire at them.
In the First Information Report, Mr. Siya Nand Mishra, the complainant in the case, had said that his son was shot dead by the members of a gang who were enemies of his son’s friends. He said that he was informed about the incident at around 3:30 a.m., by the father of Harshit, another occupant of the car, who told him that there was an emergency situation and asked him to come to Palwal.
