Train lynching: Accused confesses to crime, victim’s kin seek death penalty
A 28-year-old man, who allegedly stabbed a Muslim teen to death on a Delhi-Mathura train last month, was sent to two days of police custody on Sunday after he reportedly confessed to the crime that had sparked nationwide outrage. The victim’s family demanded the death penalty to accused Naresh Rakh who was arrested on Saturday from Maharashtra’s Dhule district and later brought to Delhi. The police said the accused worked as a security guard at a private firm in Delhi.
On June 22, Junaid (16) was killed, while his brothers Sakir (22) and Hashim (19), besides their friend Moin (19), were wounded when they were returning to their village Khandavali in Haryana’s Ballabgarh after shopping for Eid in Delhi.
A mob turned on the four, first after a tiff over seats, and then pulled off their skull caps and tugged their beard, yelling they were “anti-nationals” and “beef-eaters”.
The lynching made national headlines as it came amid an outrage over a wave of attacks on people accused of eating beef or slaughtering cows.
The murder weapon and blood-stained clothes of the accused are yet to be recovered, said railway police official Kamaldeep. Hashim had earlier told the police that the killer had almost one-foot-long …read more
