Five people have been arrested after a Class 12 student from Haryana was allegedly chased for over 25 km and shot dead as he was mistaken for a cattle smuggler in Faridabad.
The incident took place when the victim, identified as Aryan Mishra, reportedly went out with his friends Harshit and Shanky in a Duster car around midnight on August 23 to eat noodles, according to media reports.
The vigilantes, acting on a tip-off that cattle smugglers in Renault Duster and Toyota Fortuner vehicles were operating in the area, spotted the Duster car at Patel Chowk. The accused then signalled the car to stop, but Shanky, who was driving the car did not stop thinking it was someone else. The accused chased their car for about 30 kilometers near Haryana’s Gadhpuri on the Delhi-Agra National Highway before opening fire, NDTV reported.
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Aryan, seated in the passenger seat, was shot near the neck. He was then shot again when the car finally stopped and the accused thought they might fire back at them. When they realised they targeted the wrong people, they fled the scene, NDTV reported.
Aryan was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries a day later.
Five members of the cow vigilante group have been arrested for the August 23 attack, police said, adding the accused have been identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh, and Saurabh.
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The accused are currently in police custody and further investigation is underway.
The incident comes days after a migrant worker was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district over suspicion of consuming beef. Police had arrested seven people for the murder.