Mayawati hits out at Rajasthan govt over acquittal of accused in Pehlu Khan case

New Delhi: BSP Chief Mayawati on Friday hit out at Congress government in Rajasthan over the acquittal of the six accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case.

In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "It was because of carelessness and inactivity of Congress government in Rajasthan that all the six accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case were acquitted by a trial court in the state. This is very unfortunate."

The BSP chief said, "If the state government was alert in providing justice to the victim's family the accused would not have been acquitted."

A Rajasthan court had on Wednesday acquitted all six men accused of lynching Pehlu Khan to death in 2017. The accused men were let off on the benefit of doubt.

"All six persons have been acquitted by the court, this is a historic decision which will serve as a slap to the persons who wanted to divide the Hindus and Muslims and tried to build a narrative using this in the Parliament. This is an unbiased decision by the Court," Hukam Chand Sharma, advocate of the accused, told reporters in Alwar.

On April 1 in 2017, Khan, a 55-year-old dairy farmer from Haryana's Nuh, was beaten up by self-styled cow vigilantes near Behror in Rajasthan on the Delhi-Alwar highway.

He succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital two days later.