Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat, who met with the family of 19-year-old Aryan Mishra, who was shot dead by a group of cow vigilantes in Faridabad, alleged that the police told the family that their son’s killer was a “good person.”

“Shockingly, the family told our delegation (of party leaders) that the police had called their son’s killer a ‘good person’, and that he had committed a ‘mistake’. What kind of a message is being given to the family?” she said, per The Hindu.

Karat slammed the BJP-run Haryana government claiming that the state’s policies allowed cow vigilantes to act with impunity under the guise of protecting cows. She said that the murder of Aryan Mishra was facilitated by these policies, which effectively gave licence to gau rakshaks to take the law into their own hands.

Aryan Mishra, a Class 12 student, was fatally shot early on August 24 following a 30-kilometre chase from Faridabad Sector 21 to Palwal. The shooting was carried out allegedly by a gang of cow vigilantes who mistook him for a cow smuggler.

Karat, speaking to reporters at Mishra’s home on Thursday, expressed disbelief over the incident. She said, “It is unthinkable and unbelievable that for 30 km, on a road where there are CCTV cameras every few yards, they chased that car with unlicensed arms… shot him dead and then they got away.”

Karat criticised the government’s lack of empathy and said, “They don’t have the time to come and pay condolences, to express sympathy… that something like this could happen to a young boy… We demand full compensation and a job for one of the brothers (of the deceased). We also demand full security for his family.”

Aryan Mishra had gone to a mall with their landlady, her sons Harshit and Shanky, and their neighbour Kriti Sharma on August 24. The group was travelling in a Duster owned by Harshit and Shanky when Anil Kaushik and his associates began chasing them. They followed the vehicle for 29 kilometres from Faridabad to Palwal before shooting Aryan twice.

Aryan’s father, Siya Nand Mishra, questioned why only his son was hit by the bullet when there were three others sitting in the back seat. “Why were they unharmed?”

According to reports, Kaushik and his group of gau rakshaks might have acted on a false tip-off suggesting that beef was being transported in the Duster. It was reported that this information might have come from rivals of Aryan’s companions.

At the time of the chase, Shanky believed they were being chased either by police or by members of a family he had earlier attacked, he told investigators.

Kaushik and his aides Varun, Krishan, Adesh, and Saurabh have been arrested in connection with the murder.