An Alwar district court in Rajasthan on Thursday found four persons guilty in the 2018 Rakbar Khan lynching case. The court acquitted one accused person as the prosecution failed to prove the case against him.

Paramjit Singh, Darmandra Yadav, Vijay kumar, Naresh Kumar were convicted under Section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Additional District Judge Sunil Kumar Goyal gave the other man named Nawal Kishor the benefit of doubt and acquitted him.

Rakbar Khan, a resident of Haryana, and his friend, Aslam, were attacked by a mob when they were transporting two cows through a forest area near Lalawandi in Alwar in July 2018. The mob had accused them of cow smuggling. While Aslam managed to escape and hide, Khan died of his injuries while in police custody.

Mohan Singh, an assistant sub-inspector, had subsequently admitted that there had been a delay in taking Khan to hospital. He was suspended and three other personnel were transferred.

After Thursday’s court verdict, Special Public Prosecutor Ashok Kumar Sharma told Scroll that he was not satisfied with the judgement. Sharma said that he wanted the ruling to be exemplary so that it sends out a message to the public about such crimes.

He said that since there was a planned conspiracy to kill Khan, he had pleaded for conviction under Section 302 (punishment with death or life imprisonment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

“We are yet to get a copy of the judgement,” he told Scroll. “After thorough reading of the judgement, we are going to advise the state government to file an appeal against this order for enhancing the punishment.”

Zafar Aafaq contributed to the reporting for this story.