New Delhi: A group of more than 100 residents of Sanwalikedha village in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district reportedly tied 25 people up with ropes, made them do sit-ups holding their ears, forced them to chant “Gau mata ki jai” and paraded them through a two-km stretch to a police station for ‘transporting cows’.
Police have taken into custody three men of the mob, who Indian Express identified as Bajrang Dal activists. Police said efforts are on to identify the others.
A video of the incident, which took place in the Khalwas area around 60 km from Khandwa city, has been shared widely on social media. In it, villagers can be seen carrying sticks and admonishing the 25 men, who are seen crouching down, holding their own ears.
#WATCH Several people tied with a rope and made to chant “Gau mata ki jai” in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh on accusation of carrying cattle in their vehicles. (7.7.19) (Note – Abusive language) pic.twitter.com/5pbRZ4hNsR
— ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2019
Police have registered cases against both parties. The 25, seven of whom are Muslims, have been sent to judicial custody, reported Express.
“We have booked the people ferrying the cattle for doing so without requisite permissions. We have also lodged a case against the villagers, some of whom were farmers, for ill-treating those booked for unauthorised cattle transport,” Khandwa superintendent of police Shiv Dayal Singh told PTI.
Khalwas police station inspector Harishanker Rawat said the 25 men were transporting cattle to from Madhya Pradesh’s Harda district to Maharashtra. “Police have seized 21 trucks in which the animals were allegedly being taken. The cows have been moved to a shelter,” Rawat said.
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ANI, however, quoted SP Singh has having said that there were “seven to eight pick-up vehicles”.
The incident comes a day before the start of the Madhya Pradesh assembly session in which the Kamal Nath government is likely to table an amendment in a law to curb violence in the name of cow protection.
The Madhya Pradesh cabinet had, on June 27, approved changes to the Madhya Pradesh Cow Progeny Slaughter Prevention Act, 2004, to make cow vigilantism a punishable offence. The state proposed a jail term ranging from six months to three years for those who engage in violence against anyone charged under the anti-cow slaughter act.
The move to amend the law, cleared during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, came after a Muslim man and woman were beaten up on suspicion of carrying beef in Seoni district in May.
(With PTI inputs)