Dadri lynching: Meat in Akhlaq`s house was mutton, not beef

Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob for allegedly keeping beef in his house. However, it has now turned out that the meat was mutton, not beef.

Dadri: Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob here last week for allegedly keeping beef in his house. However, it has now turned out that the meat was mutton, not beef.

A forensic test has established that it was mutton that had been stored in Akhlaq's house. And the test results lend support to Akhlaq family's claim that they had not kept beef in their house.

As per a report in the Times of India, the meat sample was taken from Akhlaq's house in Bisada on September 28 and sent to a veterinary doctor for preliminary testing. While those tests proved that the meat was mutton, the police still sent the sample to a lab in Mathura to double check on facts. The lab report also established that the sample was of mutton and not beef.

The police, however, need not have sent the meat for any test, because whether it was mutton or beef had little bearing on the crime. In fact, there was no mention of beef in the FIR the police filed.

The development shows how Akhlaq became the target of a baseless rumour and how an incited mob killed a man who had been living peacefully in the village for more than five decades.

The lynching incident has shocked and outraged the nation, with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee urging for calm.

While the President stressed that the core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality of Indian civilisation must be kept in mind and cannot be allowed to be wasted, PM Modi on his part urged all to put an end to communal politics.

“Every community needs to live together. Hindus and Muslims should decide whether they want to fight against each other or against poverty,” Modi said at a rally in Bihar.