New Delhi: The government on December 11 turned down an Opposition demand in the Rajya Sabha for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the killing of five Dalits in Jhajjar district of Haryana and said the state government had acted very fast in giving Rs 5 lakh compensation to the next of kin of all those killed.

Responding to clarifications sought on his statement on the incident, Minister of State for Home I D Swami said the Centre did not have powers to direct any state government to hand over any case to the CBI for investigation.

"Without the consent of the state government, cases cannot be handed over to the CBI," he said responding to members' queries as to why the matter was not being handed over to CBI for probe.

Maintaining that the incident was certainly not an incident of atrocity on Dalits, Swami said it was because of misconception and rumour-mongering that cows were being slaughtered openly. "Sentiments flared up because people took it as slaughter of cows," he said.

The minister said post-mortem examination was carried out on cows and it was found that they had died 24 hours before they were being skinned.

Referring to charges of negligence of police or their connivance with the perpetrators of the crime, he said the police did not estimate that such a large crowd would collect there. "All the police personnel have been chargesheeted," he added.

PTI