Akbar's last footprints, washed away by monsoon rain

It could have been the quaint panorama it appeared. Monsoon-kissed green fields on either side, the stretch of tarmac tearing right through it, and the stately Aravali hills looking over the landscape. But the setting proved to be the stage for an act of lynching a few hours ago.

Akbar Khan, 31, who was transporting cattle on the same route to his village situated on Alwar-Haryana border, was intercepted and killed, allegedly by a group of cow protection vigilantes. At the spot where he was stripped of his life, are a few footprints, carved out in the wet mud. Some villagers say they belonged to him, others say they belong to the foot soldiers of the new political order. The scene has been washed by a spell of rain and the only things that can be felt are the air's wetness and the trail of eeriness left by the angel of death.

"This is not the first time someone has been attacked. There is a gang of boys in our village and nearby village who are self-styled cow vigilantes. But this time they killed a man," said Rehana, a native of Lalavadi village in Ramgarh of Alwar district where the lynching took place.

Another bystander who also lives in the same village added, "The field where Akbar was beaten to death belongs to Dharmendra Yadav, one of the accused arrested by police on Saturday."

Hindu outfits' role

One of the elderly members of the village, on the condition of anonymity, told DH that Dharmendra and few others were drinking in the fields and when they saw two men walking with their cattle, they attacked them in a drunken state.

While few preferred not to discuss anything about the lynching, some of the villagers were quick to link the accused with Hindu outfits, "Both are active with RSS and Shiv Sena and call themselves cow protectors," said another villager of Lalavadi village, from where both the accused hail.

Read: My son was not a cow smuggler: lynching victim's dad

Alwar: Man lynched on suspicion of cow smuggling,2 held