A man has been attacked by a group of five to eight persons for allegedly carrying beef.
The incident took place in Bharsingi village, which falls under the Jalalkheda Police station limits of Nagpur rural, on Wednesday evening.
“Salim Ismail Sheikh, a resident of Katol town, was returning to his town when five to eight men stopped him at the Bharsingi bus stop and asked him to get off his two-wheeler and show what he was carrying. When he resisted, the men attacked him,” Nagpur rural Superintendent of Police Shailesh Balkawade told The Hindu.
Sheikh suffered injuries on his neck and face and he was admitted to a hospital in Nagpur and discharged.
A video of the incident, which went viral on social media, shows the attackers accusing Mr. Sheikh of “ killing a cow.”
“The victim was carrying some kind of meat. He has named four unknown persons. We could establish the identity of four of them from the video clip, which was being circulated on social media, and arrested them late on Wednesday night and in the early hours of Thursday. They are not affiliated to any right-wing organisation. One of the accused is a taluka-level president of Prahar, a socio-political organisation. We are trying to establish whether there are any other angles to the incident,” Mr. Balkawade said.
The ‘meat’ has been seized and sent to a forensic lab in Nagpur to ascertain if it was beef or not. “It cannot be established immediately. A report is awaited. We are also trying to ascertain if it was an attack by cow vigilantes or not. We are not ruling out anything at this moment. The accused are yet to be investigated thoroughly to ascertain their motive. We are neither confirming nor denying it . The victim and accused do not have any criminal background. Neither did they know each other,” he added.
