In a tragic case of mistaken identity, a 19-year-old Class 12 student, Aryan Mishra, was shot and killed by cow vigilantes in Faridabad on August 23. The vigilantes, who mistook him and his friends for cattle smugglers, chased their vehicle for 25 kilometers before the fatal shooting. Five individuals, identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh, and Saurav, have been arrested in connection with the crime.
The incident unfolded when Aryan, along with his friends Harshit and Shanky, went out in a Duster SUV around midnight to get some food. According to the police, the vigilantes claimed during questioning that they had received a tip-off about cattle smugglers conducting surveillance in the area using Duster and Fortuner SUVs. The vigilantes, who were also patrolling in a car, spotted the Duster and attempted to signal it to stop.
Harshit, who was driving the vehicle, mistakenly believed that the men confronting them were linked to a recent dispute he and Shanky had with another individual, who had an attempt to murder case against him. Fearing for their lives, the group decided to flee, triggering a high-speed chase. The vigilantes, convinced that they were pursuing cattle smugglers, followed the Duster as it sped through the Palwal toll plaza, breaking barriers in the process. As the chase continued, the vigilantes opened fire on the vehicle, with a bullet piercing the rear window and striking Aryan, who was seated in the front passenger seat. Harshit managed to pull over the car after Aryan was hit, but the attackers approached the vehicle and fired another shot, this time into Aryan’s chest, killing him on the spot.
Following the incident, Faridabad Police arrested the five accused, who initially tried to mislead investigators by claiming they had disposed of the murder weapon in a canal. However, the police later recovered the weapon from the residence of Anil Kaushik. This case is a vivid example of the growing menace of cow vigilantism and its deadly consequences. Although the maximum number of victims of these extra-judicial killings and mob lynchings by cow vigilantes have been from the Muslim community, sometimes others too have to lose their lives unnecessarily. It is high time the government and law-enforcement authorities clamped down on this ugly phenomenon and stopped giving a free hand to these cow vigilantes.
