Cow Vigilantes Thrash Two Muslim Men in Jharkhand Town; Seven Arrested

New Delhi, 04 Apr 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: The police in Giridih district of Jharkhand have arrested seven accused after two Muslim men were beaten up and looted by a mob over allegation of smuggling cow for slaughter in the Sihodih area.

The victims have been identified as Asif and Kaifi Khan, who hail from Kuraishi mohalla of the area. The incident happened on Friday.

In his complaint, Kaifi said that he and Asif were accused of transporting cow and beaten up by the mob with sticks when they stopped their bike to see the mob setting an auto-rickshaw on fire. They were caught and tied to a tree and thrashed.

Both of them got serious injuries. Asif told local media that their mobile phones, cash and bike’s key were also looted by the mob.

The SHO of Giridih town police station, Aryan Chaudhary, told Clarion India over the phone on Saturday that they have arrested seven people in this regard. The police also arrested those who were actually transporting the cow in the auto.

Chaudhary said that Aasif and Kaifi were beaten up by the mob because they mistook the victims as the ones who were transporting the cow in the auto.

The mob in Sihodih had waylaid an auto-rickshaw carrying the cow. The auto-rickshaw had allegedly banged someone. The driver ran away leaving his vehicle behind. The mob caught Asif and Kaifi instead and started thrashing them.

“We reached the spot as soon as we got information and sent the victims to the hospital. We seized the vehicle also,” Chaudhary said.

According to Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, Kaifi filed a complaint against 18 accused, 13 named and 5 unnamed. Those named are: Manish Kumar, Ajay Yadav, Basant Kumar, Vivek Ranjan, Ashwini Kumar alias Anshu, Ranveer Singh, Satyam Sing alias Shivam, Vikas Sharma, Om Kumar Paswan, Suraj Kumar, Suman Saurabh, Veer Abhimanyu Singh and Vinod Kumar Sharma.

The mob also set the auto-rickshaw on fire. The video of the incident has surfaced on social media. CPI-ML chief Dipankar asked Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to take appropriate action terming it a case of “mob lynching”.

On the other hand, on the complaint of police official Vivek Saurabh, the police also registered an FIR and arrested the auto driver and the owner of the auto Mohd Asif and Mohd Aslam for allegedly smuggling the cow.