Aryan Mishra, 19, was travelling in a car with friends in Faridabad when they were spotted and chased by another vehicle for 18 miles, apparently on suspicion of being Muslim cow smugglers. When their car eventually pulled over, in the early hours of August 24, the pursuers shot Mishra in the head. Among the five men who had chased the Renault Duster down was Anil Kaushik, 38, who often patrolled the area as a self-styled gau rakshak or “cow protector”.
After his arrest on suspicion of the teenager’s murder, Kaushik found himself face to face with Mishra’s father, Siyanand, at the police station. Siyanand, 49, said Kaushik told him: “I made a big mistake. Your son was a Hindu. I thought he was a Muslim.” The father added: “I asked him, ‘Would it make the killing all right if my boy had been Muslim? For a cow? Is a Muslim not human?’ ”
Four other men were arrested, but police do not expect to file charges until next month. Kaushik’s gang is one of hundreds that roam north India pursuing Muslims on suspicion of killing cows or eating beef. But the gau rakshaks have been emboldened by the polarising rhetoric of BJP, often acting with the complicity of the police and against those falsely accused of eating beef. Between 2010 and 2018, the latest figures available, India reported at least 123 violent crimes linked to conflict over cows. Ninety-eight per cent took place after the BJP took power in 2014.
The news of Mishra’s death made headlines across the country. The shock was not over his killing but the fact that a Hindu had been mistakenly targeted. Two incidents of cow-related violence against Muslims since have barely merited any coverage.
BJP-run states have increased the penalties for killing cows - in Uttar Pradesh the punishment is ten years in prison, the same as for culpable homicide. Samar Halarnkar, a columnist, said: “What is more blatant than ever in BJP states is the visible confidence of Hindu fundamentalists that the might of the law and the state will not be used against them.”
Nayab Singh Saini, the BJP chief minister of Haryana, said: “Villagers have so much respect for cows that if they are informed about such things … then who can stop them?”
The Mishra family live in a slum in the AC Nagar part of Faridabad. Uma, Mishra’s mother, said: “They use the cow as an excuse to kill Muslims. My neighbours are Muslims. I don’t want any of them to be bereaved like me.”
