Faridabad youth was shot dead over 'mistaken identity'

The death of a 20-year-old youth in firing here allegedly by cow vigilantes nearly 10 days ago happened due to confusion over the victim's identity, it has come to light.

The police have arrested four persons, of whom one is said to be a member of a cow vigilante group. The four accused are learnt to have told the police that they killed a wrong person in the wake of identity confusion and after the victim tried to flee instead of stopping for checking.

The checking was being done following rumours that a few cow smugglers had been trying to lift cows from the NIT area on the night of August 23.

The victim, Aryan Mishra, a resident of NIT here, was killed when a few youths, following him in a car, opened fire on him while chasing him on the national highway.

Aryan along with a few friends, including two women, were on their way home after a party at a mall around 11.30 pm when they were intercepted allegedly by cow vigilantes near Patel Chowk here. It is alleged that Aryan and his friends decided not to stop the car thinking they were being stopped by a youth who had been a neighbour and with whom the victim was having a dispute.

On the other hand, cow vigilantes took the victim and his friends as cow smugglers and asked them to stop their car. The accused, said to be armed with illegal weapons, chased them for about 15 minutes before opening fire, which resulted in Aryan's death.

The accused are learnt to have realised that they killed a wrong person when they noticed two women in the car and could not find anything incriminating. A police official said the matter was being probed from all angles after the arrest of the accused.