Faridabad, 3 Sept

A class 12 student was allegedly chased in a car and shot dead here on August 23 by a group of five cow vigilantes who mistook the boy for a cattle smuggler, police said on Tuesday.

All the five accused -- Saurabh, Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna and Adesh -- have been arrested, the police said.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that on the night of August 23, they had received information that some suspected cattle smugglers driving two SUVs were doing recce in the city. They mistook the victim, Aryan Mishra, and his friends, Shanky and Harshit, for those cattle smugglers and followed their car for about 30 kilometres near the Gadhpuri toll on the Delhi-Agra National Highway, a senior police officer said.

The accused told the police that when they asked the victim's car to be stopped, the driver accelerated, following which they opened fire and Mishra was killed on the spot near the Gadhpuri toll in Palwal, the police officer said.

All the accused have been sent to judicial custody after being presented in a city court, he said, adding that the illegal weapon and the car used in the crime have been recovered.

Further investigations are underway, the police said.-PTI