Alwar lynching: Fearing gaurakshaks, Pehlu Khan’s driver now ferries vegetables
Ever since the attack, Arjun Kumar Yadav hasn’t set foot on the weekly cattle market from where Pehlu Khan had bought the bovines that he was transporting to his native village Jaishinghpur in Haryana’s Nuh.
Arjun Kumar Yadav, who was driving the truck attacked by alleged cow vigilantes killing dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in April, doesn’t transport cattle anymore. Instead, the 23-year-old, also a key witness in the case, ferries vegetables to villages on Jaipur outskirts, incurring a monthly loss of Rs 10,000.
Yadav’s family members, in Chomu town near Jaipur, said the financial loss was a small cost to pay as long as it doesn’t risk their son’s life.
On April 1, it was in the pickup truck owned by Yadav that Pehlu Khan was transporting cattle before he was waylaid and lynched by a mob. HT reported last week how the Rajasthan police, citing lack of evidence, gave a clean chit to all the six people named by Khan for the attack that had sparked nationwide outrage.
Yadav, had managed to escape when Khan and other dairy farmers, Azmat and Rafique, were attacked. Since then, the pickup truck remained confiscated at the Behror police station as Yadav treated the injuries that he sustained in the attack.
“I got the pickup truck back last month and had to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to repair the damages. Now I am back to driving it,” Yadav told HT reluctant to speak about the lynching incident.
The family said ever since the attack, Yadav hasn’t set foot on the weekly cattle market from where Khan had bought the bovines that he was transporting to his native village Jaishinghpur in Haryana’s Nuh.
“We forbade him from transporting cattle again. Now he ferries vegetables to various villages near Jaipur. We were concerned that in spite of having permit and all the necessary documents what if he is once again attacked by gaurakshaks?” said Girdhari Lal, his uncle.
Lal said this decision to stop transporting cattle has also amounted to a loss of at least Rs 10,000.
“Earlier, Arjun used to transport cattle to adjacent districts near Jaipur such as Nagaur and used to earn around Rs 30,000. Now, by ferrying vegetables he earns only Rs 20,000 which is quite less but at least he is not risking his life,” said Lal.
Of the Rs 20,000 Yadav pays a monthly bank instalment of Rs 16,000 to back for the Rs 4.5 lakh loan that he availed to buy the truck eight months before the attack.
“There’s very little money he can save after paying the loan instalment but the life of our son is more precious than the income. We would never let him transport cattle again,” his uncle Lal, said.
