New Delhi:

Five cow vigilantes have been arrested and two minors have been detained in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri for allegedly killing a man over suspicion that he had consumed beef.

The accused suspected that Sabir Malik, a labourer who had come to Haryana from Bihar, had consumed beef, and so they plotted to kill him, the police said.

The suspects called Malik and another labourer to a shop under the pretext of selling empty plastic bottles for scrap on August 27. There, the seven accused thrashed the two labourers.

A video of the beatings had gone viral on social media. While Malik died of injuries, the other worker is being treated in a hospital, the police said.

“Some people called police on August 27 over suspicion that beef was being cooked at a slum. The police came and took samples of the meat and sent them to a lab. However, later, the suspects took two of the labourers away and thrashed them,” police officer Bharat Bhushan said.

He said the police will investigate the case and take action. The five arrested men are Abhishek, Mohit, Ravinder, Kamaljit and Sahil.

Mumbai:

An elderly man was allegedly assaulted by his co-passengers in an express train near Igatpuri in Maharashtra’s Nashik district on suspicion that he was carrying beef, the Government Railway Police (GRP) said on Saturday.

The GRP has initiated a probe after a video of the alleged incident, which took place earlier this week, surfaced on social media, an official said.

The video shows a dozen people assaulting a man and verbally abusing him inside a train.

According to the GRP, the victim, Haji Ashraf Munyar, a resident of Jalgaon district, was travelling to his daughter’s house in Kalyan when he was allegedly beaten up by his co-passengers near Igatpuri on suspicion that he was carrying beef.

“We have taken cognisance of the video and identified the victim. Some of the people involved in the attack have also been identified, and a probe is on,” the official said, adding that no case has been registered so far.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mandla:

Houses built on government land by 11 persons were demolished in tribal-dominated Mandla in Madhya Pradesh as part of action against the illegal beef trade in the state, a police official said on Saturday.

The action was taken after a tip-off was received that a large number of cows had been held captive for slaughter in the Bhainwahi area in Nainpur, Mandla Superintendent of Police Rajat Saklecha told PTI.

“A team was rushed there and we found 150 cows tied in the backyards of the accused. Cow meat was recovered from the refrigerators in the homes of all the 11 accused. We also found animal fat, cattle skin and bones, which were stuffed in a room,” he said.

“The local government veterinarian has confirmed the seized meat is beef. We have also sent samples to Hyderabad for secondary DNA analysis. The houses of the11 accused were demolished as they were on government land,” the SP said.

The SP said an FIR was registered on Friday night following the recovery of the cows and beef, adding that one of the accused had been arrested while a hunt was on for the remaining 10.

“The 150 cows have been sent to a cattle shelter. The Bhainswahi area has become a hub of cow smuggling for some time now. Cow slaughter in MP is punishable with a jail term of seven years,” Mr Saklecha added.

Police sources said the criminal history of two of the accused has been gathered and the process was on to find out about the antecedents of the remaining persons. All the accused are Muslims, they added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)