A fast-track court in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida hearing the Mohammad Akhlaq lynching case on Monday deferred the recording of his daughter’s statement till July 4 after she could not depose before it due to lack of security.

Akhlaq’s daughter Shaista, 28, a key witness of the 2015 incident, could not depose in the court due to lack of security as police personnel remain engaged in law and order duty in the wake of the Bharat Bandh call over the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, family’s lawyer Yusuf Saifi said.

The case is being heard by fast-track court judge Anil Kumar Singh at the district and sessions court in Surajpur, Greater Noida.

Shaista had on June 14 started recording her statement as a witness in the case and was supposed to continue it on June 17 also, but security could not be provided to her by the police who were engaged in law and order duty on that day too, the lawyer said.

“In view of the police's engagement in other duties, adequate security could not be provided to Shaista and hence she could not reach the court after which the next date was deferred to July 4,” Saifi told PTI.

Akhlaq, 52-year-old resident of Bisada village in Dadri area of Gautam Buddh Nagar, was lynched on September 28, 2015, by a mob allegedly over suspicion that he had stored beef in his house.

There were 16 accused in the case initially, but one of them died since the trial started seven years ago while two of the accused are juveniles.