Footage of two youths being thrashed by a group of at least seven persons in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandhshar district for alleged cow slaughter went viral on social media on Wednesday.
While the two alleged that they were accused of cow slaughter by the assaulters, who allegedly used communal slurs against them, police said an old case of eve-teasing was behind the incident .
Read: Opinion | Cow slaughter and the Constitution
A case had been registered under charges of attempt to murder, rioting, criminal intimidation and kidnapping for murder against five persons and another unidentified person. The FIR identifies the five accuses as Shivam, Satyaveer, Sachin, Badal and Dinesh Pandit.
In a video that has gone viral, the youths, one of them bare-chested, are seen being punched, kicked and hit with a lathi by some men in an undisclosed location next to a car bearing a Delhi number plate. The victims can be heard begging for mercy.
In another video, a youth, identifying himself as Umar, says a group intercepted their two-wheeler and and pulled them on the road while they were going to a cold storage. They used communal slurs and referred to the violence in Delhi while abusing and threatening them with dire consequences. “They had hammers, axe and knives. They also threatened to throw acid on us”, he states.
In a cryptic sentence, he says they were targetted for cow slaughter. “Shouldn't we have blood on our hands [if we indulged in cow slaughter]”, he asks.
The other victim was identified as Rahil Gazi.
It is not clear who shot the two videos.
The police said on Twitter that the incident took place in the Sikandrabad area near the Yadav Farmhouse on Khurja road on March 2.
‘To get carrots from cold storage’
In a police complaint, Umar's brother Mehervan says the two youths were going to get carrots from a cold storage in their four-wheeler when the assaulters intercepted them. They were kidnapped at gunpoint, taken to a forest and beaten up with rods and sticks with the intent to kill, alleges Mehervan.
SSP Bulandhshar Santosh Kumar Singh, however, said it was “a brawl between two groups” near Hamidpur village, adding that a police case was registered instantly.
Asked about the cause of the alleged brawl, he said many reasons were being speculated, including eve-teasing and an old case of illicit relationship. “We are probing all angles deeply”, he added.
