The commission has sent a report, detailing the events of the incident and its recommendations, to the government. It charged that “anti-social elements” helped by the police had created an atmosphere of suspicion by spreading rumours that the five men had killed cows provoking “an ordinary” crowd of people who were returning from a fair.

“The people did not attack the five men because they knew that they were Dalits but because they were told that they had killed cows,” commission Chairman Bijay Sonkar Shastri said.

The VHP has widely been accused of masterminding the incident despite repeated denials by it.

“The people who attacked the five Dalits were returning after watching a fair and must surely have included Dalits as generally people from such castes watch fairs,” Mr Shastri said adding that “had they known that the victims were Dalits, the members of their caste would not have participated in the attack.”

“So the Dalit factor was surely not a motive for the attack,” he asserted.

Mr Shastri pinned responsibility on the local policemen for the lynching, alleging that they were aware that the victims were Dalits but did nothing to save them. “They, in fact, helped in the lynching,” he charged.

He said the commission had recommended to the government to give adequate compensation to the victims’ kin and improve law and order in Jhajjar district.

Jhajjar: A former district chief of the Shiv Sena, Shishupal, on Thursday surrendered to the police in connection with the Dulina lynching case.

He was among 16 accused identified by the police yesterday. A local court had issued arrest warrants in their names.