INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty Images (Allison Joyce)Image caption
Cow vigilantes in Ramgarh in 2015
A Muslim
dairy farmer was stopped late one night last July as he led two cows down a track in rural Rajasthan, south of the Indian capital, Delhi
Within hours he was dead, but who killed him, asks the TheIndianSubcontinent's James Clayton - the "cow vigilantes" he met on the road, or
the policeIt's 4am and Dr Hassan Khan, the duty doctor at Ramgarh hospital, is notified of something unusual.The police have brought in a
dead man, a man they claim not to know
"What were the police like when they brought him in Were they calm" I ask him
"They were anxious." "Are they usually anxious" I ask
"Not usually," he says, laughing nervously
The dead man is later identified by his father as local farmer Rakbar Khan.This was not a random murder
The story illustrates some of the social tensions bubbling away under the surface in India, and particularly in the north of the country.And
his case raises questions for the authorities - including the governing Hindu nationalist BJP party.Cow-related violence - 2012-2019Image
copyrightIndiaSpendRakbar Khan was a family man
He kept cows and he also happened to be a Muslim
That can be a dangerous mix in India."We have always reared cows, and we are dependent on their milk for our livelihood," says Rakbar's
"No-one used to say anything when you transported a cow."That has changed
Several men have been killed in recent years while transporting cows in the mainly Muslim region of Mewat, not far from Delhi, where Rakbar
If we go to get a cow they will kill us
They surround our vehicle
So everyone is too scared to get these animals," says Suleiman.Everyone I speak to in the village where the Khans live is afraid of gau
rakshaks - cow protection gangs
Image copyrightGetty Images (Allison Joyce)Image caption
Nawal Kishore Sharma's cow protection group in 2015
The gangs often consist of young, hardline Hindus, who believe passionately in defending India's holy animal
They believe that laws to protect cows, such as a ban on slaughtering the animals, are not being fully enforced - and they hunt for "cow
smugglers", who they believe are taking cows to be killed for meat.Often armed, they have been responsible for dozens of attacks on farmers
in India over the last five years, according to data analysis organisation IndiaSpend, which monitors reports of hate crimes in the media.On
21 July 2018, Rakbar Khan met the local gau rakshak.There are some things we know for certain about what happened that night
Rakbar was walking down a small road with two cows
It was late and it was raining heavily
Then, out of the dark, came the lights of motorbikes
We know this, because Rakbar was with a friend, who survived
Image copyrightGetty Images (Enrico Fabian)At this point the details become a little sketchier
There are three versions of the story.The gang managed to catch Rakbar, but his friend, Aslam, slipped away
He lay on the ground, in the mud and prayed he wouldn't be found
"There was so much fear inside me, my heart was hurting," he says
"From there I heard the screams
There wasn't a single part of his body that wasn't broken
He was beaten very badly."Find out moreWatch James Clayton's report for Newsnight, on TheIndianSubcontinent TwoThe documentary India's
Cow Vigilantes can be seen on Our World on TheIndianSubcontinent World News and on the TheIndianSubcontinent News Channel (click for
transmission times)Aslam says that Rakbar was killed then and there
But there is evidence that suggests otherwise
Much of what happened next focuses around the leader of the local cow vigilante group, Nawal Kishore Sharma
Aslam claims he heard the gang address him by name that night, but when I speak to Sharma, he denies he was there at all
Some of my group phoned me to say they'd caught some cow smugglers," he says
According to Nawal Kishore Sharma, he then drove with the police to the spot
"He was alive and he was fine," he says
But that's not what the police say
In their "first incident report" they say that Rakbar was indeed alive when they found him."Nawal Kishore Sharma informed the police at
about 00:41 that some men were smuggling two cows on foot," the report says."Then the police met Nawal Kishore outside the police station
and they all went to the location."There was a man who was injured and covered in mud."He told the police his name, his father's name, his
age (28) and the village he was from
"And as he finished these sentences, he almost immediately passed out
Then he was put in the police vehicle and they left for Ramgarh."Then the police reached Ramgarh with Rakbar where the available doctor
declared him dead." Image copyrightGetty Images (Allison Joyce)Image caption
Ramgarh at night
But this
version of events is highly dubious.I go to the hospital in Ramgarh, where Rakbar was taken
Hospital staff are busily going through bound books of hospital records - looking for Rakbar's admission entry
"Unknown dead body" brought in at 04:00 on 21 July 2018.It's not a long entry, but it contradicts the police's story, and raises some
For a start, Rakbar was found about 12 minutes' drive away from the hospital
Why did it take more than three hours for them to take him there And if the police say Rakbar gave them his name, why did they tell the
hospital they didn't know who he wasNawal Kishore Sharma claims to know why
He paints a very different picture of what happened to Rakbar.He tells me that after picking up Rakbar, they changed his clothes
He then claims to have taken two photos of Rakbar - who at this point was with the police
Sharma says that he went to the police station with the police
He claims that's when the beating really began
"The police injured him badly
They even beat him with their shoes," he says."They kicked him powerfully on the left side of his body four times
Then they beat him with sticks
They beat him here (pointing at his ribs) and even on his neck."At about 03:00 Nawal Kishore Sharma says he went with some police officers
to take the two cows to a local cow shelter
When he returned, he says, the police told him that Rakbar had died.Rakbar's death certificate shows that his leg and hand had been broken
He'd been badly beaten and had broken his ribs, which had punctured his lungs
I ask the duty doctor at the hospital whether he remembers what Rakbar's body was like when the police brought it in."It was cold," he
I ask him how long it would take for a body to become cold after death
"A couple of hours," he replies
"I don't want to talk about Rakbar's case," says Rejendra Singh, chief of police of Alwar district, which includes Ramgarh.Since Rakbar's
murder several police officers have been suspended
"There were lapses on the police side," he says
I ask him what those lapses were."They had not followed the regular police procedure, which they were supposed to do," he says
"It was one big lapse."Three men from Nawal Kishore Sharma's vigilante group have been charged with Rakbar's murder
Sharma himself remains under investigation.The vigilante group and the police blame each other for Rakbar's death, but neither denies
working together that night.The way Sharma describes it, the police cannot be everywhere, so the vigilantes help them out
But it's the police that "take all the action" he says.Image copyrightGetty Images (Enrico Fabian)Image caption
Nawal
Kishore Sharma inspects a lorry transporting cows (October 2015)
Much police activity in Rajasthan is focused on stopping
Across the state there are dozens of formal cow checkpoints, where police stop vehicles looking for smugglers who are taking cows to be
I visited one of the checkpoints
Sure enough police were patiently stopping vehicles and looking for cows
The night before officers had had a gun battle with a group of men after a truck failed to stop
These checkpoints have become common in some parts of India
Sometimes they are run by the police, sometimes by the vigilantes, and sometimes by both
This gets to the heart of Rakbar's case.Human rights groups argue that his murder - and others like his - show that in some areas the
police have got too close to the gangs.Image copyrightGetty Images (Allison Joyce)Image caption
The vigilantes find what
they are looking for (November 2015)
"Unfortunately what we're finding too often is that the police are complicit," says
Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch, which published a 104-page report on cow-related violence in India this week.In some areas, police
have been reluctant to arrest the perpetrators of violence - and much faster to prosecute people accused of either consuming or trading in
beef, he says.Human Rights Watch has looked into 12 cases where it claims police have been complicit in the death of a suspected cow
smuggler or have covered it up
But this case doesn't just illustrate police failings
Some would argue that it also illustrates how parts of the governing BJP party have inflamed the problem
Gyandev Ahuja is a larger-than-life character
As the local member of parliament in Ramgarh at the time when Rakbar was killed he's an important local figure
He has also made a series of controversial statements about "cow smugglers"
After a man was badly beaten in December 2017 Ahuja told local media: "To be straightforward, I will say that if anyone is indulging in cow
smuggling, then this is how you will die."After Rakbar's death he said that cow smuggling was worse than terrorism
Image copyrightGetty Images (Enrico Fabian)Image caption
Nails used by the vigilantes to force lorries to stop
Gyandev Ahuja is just one of several BJP politicians who have made statements that are supportive of the accused in so-called "cow
One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministers was even photographed garlanding the accused murderers in a cow vigilante case
Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says it is "terrifying" that elected officials have defended attackers."It is really, at this point
of time, something that is a great concern, because it is changing a belief into a political narrative, and a violent one," he says.The
worry is that supportive messages from some of the governing party's politicians have emboldened the vigilantes
No official figures are kept on cow violence, but the data collected by IndiaSpend suggests that it started ramping up in 2015, the year
after Narendra Modi was elected
IndiaSpend says that since then there have been 250 injuries and 46 deaths related to cow violence
This is likely to be an underestimate because farmers who have been beaten may be afraid to go to the police - and when a body is found it
may not be clear what spurred the attack
The vast majority of the victims are Muslims.Image copyrightGetty Images (Enrico Fabian)Image caption
A cow shelter in
Ramgarh
A BJP spokesman, Nalin Kohli, emphatically rejects any connection between his party and cow violence."To say the BJP
is responsible is perverse, inaccurate and absolutely false," he tells me
"Many people have an interest in building a statement that the BJP is behind it
We won't tolerate it." I ask him about Gyandev Ahuja's inflammatory statements
"Firstly that is not the party's point of view and we have very clearly and unequivocally always said an individual's point of view is
theirs, the point of view of the party is articulated by the party."Has the BJP promoted him or protected him No." But a month after this
interview, Ahuja was made vice-president of the party in Rajasthan
Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Rajasthan - publicly slapping Ahuja on the back and waving together at crowds of
BJP supporters.In Mewat I speak to Rakbar's wife, Asmina."Show me how you raise seven children without a husband
How will I be able to raise them" she says, wiping away tears
"My youngest daughter says that my father went to God
If you ask her, 'How did he go to God' she says, 'My father was bringing a cow and people killed him.'"The life of an animal is so important
but that of a human is not."The trial of the three men accused of his murder has yet to take place, but perhaps we will never know what
really happened to Rakbar
In November 2015, photographer Allison Joyce spent a night following Nawal Kishore Sharma's vigilantes in the countryside near Ramgarh
One of her shots shows a police officer embracing Sharma, after his group succeeding in catching some suspected cow smugglers.Though the
police now accuse the cow vigilantes of killing Rakbar Khan, and the vigilantes accuse the police, the photograph illustrates just how
closely they worked together.Image copyrightGetty Images (Allison Joyce)In the Indian media there have been claims that the police took the
two cows that Rakbar had been transporting to a cow shelter, as Rakbar lay dead or dying in a police vehicle.There are also claims that the
police stopped and drank tea instead of taking Rakbar to hospital
Whatever they did, they did not take Rakbar to hospital immediately.Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and
