A 45-year-old man succumbed to the injuries he had received after being beaten up by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district, around 70 km from Delhi, allegedly over rumours of attempt to slaughter a cow. Another person was seriously injured.
The incident took place on Monday in Pilakhuwa village. The victim has been identified as 45-year-old Qasim. The injured Samayuddin, 65, is being treated at a local hospital.
The two men were brutally thrashed reportedly after an argument with some bike-borne men from the neighbouring village, the police said. But according to a report in The Indian Express, the assault was related to cattle smuggling.
A video is making rounds on the social media in which a middle-aged man with torn clothes is seen sitting on the ground and then he collapses. There is a crowd of onlookers were none is helping the man. The man in the video is being identified as Qasim.
“You have hit him, assaulted him, enough is enough… please understand there are consequences,” a man is heard saying in the video as he pleads for offering the man some water. Another voice cuts him off and says, “Had we not reached within two minutes, the cow would have been slaughtered.” A third man is heard saying, “He is a butcher… someone ask him why he was trying to slaughter a calf?”
An FIR filed by Samayuddin’s family does not mention cow slaughter, police said. “Two people were passing through the Bajheda village on a motorcylce. They fought with some locals over right of way. After that they were assaulted and one person died. The complaint filed by the family says the motorcycle of the two men collided with another one and that led to an argument,” said Pawan Kumar, a senior police officer.