‘Promoting the hate agenda’: Kapil Sibal on the killing of a Haryana student who was ‘mistaken’ to be a cow smuggler

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that “promotion of hate agenda” led to the killing of a Class 12 student by “cow vigilantes” in Faridabad, Haryana, last month. In a post on X on Wednesday, Sibal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to comment on the issue.

Sibal wrote on X: “Shame on us. Aryan 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐫𝐚 (class 12 student) was shot dead in Haryana by cow protectors who thought he was a 'cow transporter'! Reason: promoting hate agenda. Will our Prime Minister, our Vice President, our Home Minister say anything?”

The murder of Aryan Mishra

Class 12 student Aryan Mishra was allegedly chased in a car and shot dead in Faridabad on August 23. Five people, suspected to be cow activists, were arrested in connection with the incident.

Police sources told news agency PTI that the accused claimed they thought the boy was a cattle smuggler.

The five accused were reportedly identified as Saurabh, Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna and Adesh. They “were arrested on August 28 and remanded in police custody for two days,” Police Commissioner Aman Yadav said in a statement released on Tuesday.

How did the incident develop?

During interrogation, the accused stated that on the night of August 23, they received information that some suspected cattle smugglers were on a reconnaissance tour in the city with two SUVs, the sources said.

They mistook the victim, Aryan Mishra, and his friends Shanky and Harshit for cattle smugglers and followed their vehicle for about 30 kilometres to the Gadhpuri toll plaza on the Delhi-Agra national highway, the sources said.

The accused told police that when they asked the boy and his friends to stop their car, the driver accelerated, following which they opened fire. Mishra was killed on the spot near Gadhpuri toll plaza in Palwal, they said.