Four people have been detained after a man was assaulted by locals in Nagpur's Bharsingi area on suspicion of carrying beef. The incident reportedly took place on Wednesday.
A case has been registered by the Nagpur police and the four have been interrogated, ANI reported. The news agency has also a video showing the man being dragged and kicked around by the men. The meat sample has reportedly been sent for forensic analysis.
Salim Ismail Sheikh, a resident of the district's Katol town, was returning home on Wednesday evening on his bike when 5-6 men apprehended him at a bus stop in Bharsingi village of Nagpur rural, and asked him to get off the two-wheeler.
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The men asked him to show the meat he was carrying in the dicky of his bike. When he resisted, the men allegedly thrashed him, Nagpur rural Superintendent of Police Shailesh Balkawade said.
Sheikh suffered injuries on his face and neck in the attack. He was admitted to a hospital in Nagpur and discharged today, police sources said.
Following the incident, the victim lodged a complaint against unidentified persons.
The police were able to establish the identity of the accused on the basis of the incident's purported video clip which went viral, an official said.
Two of the accused were arrested and as many others were taken into custody this morning, the SP said.
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Those arrested have been identified as Ashwin Uike, 35, Rameshwar Taywade, 42, Moreshwar Tandurkar, 36, and Jagdish Chaudhari, 25, a police official said.
They have been booked under IPC sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), he said.
The section 326 of IPC attracts a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The SP said the meat has been seized and sent to a forensic lab in Nagpur for testing. The report is awaited.
To a query, he said the police are investigating the incident and trying to find out whether the men were 'cow vigilantes'.
The incident is being probed from all angles, he added.
The incident is the latest addition to the growing list of incidents of cow-related violence, where self-styled vigilante groups resort to violence in the name of cow protectionism.
Junaid,17, was stabbed to death while his brothers – Hashim and Sakir – were injured by a mob which also allegedly hurled slurs against them on-board the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations last month.
Junaid’s incident was followed by a lynching in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district where a mob of more than 100 people attacked a 45-year-old Muslim trader, Alimuddin aka Asgar Ali, on the suspicion of carrying beef in his car.
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The incident happened on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the killing of people in the name of “Gau bhakti” and said that it is not acceptable. He was giving his speech at Sabarmati Ashram during the centenary celebrations in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
According to an IndiaSpend content analysis of the English media, Muslims were the target of 51% of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents.
As many of 97% of these attacks were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government came to power in May 2014, and about half the cow-related violence – 32 of 63 cases – were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party when the attacks were reported, revealed their analysis of violence recorded until June 25, 2017.
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(With PTI inputs)
