In yet another incident of hate crime, 25 men, who claimed to be cattle movers transporting cows to Maharashtra, were tied up, thrashed and forced to chant “gau mata ki jai” by cow vigilantes in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district.
A video of the incident that has been circulated widely on social media, the men can be seen holding their ears and kneeling on the road while chanting ‘gau mata ki jai’. They were all tied together by a rope.
Over a 100 villagers were said to be involved in this hate crime that took place in July 7.
PTI reported the police as saying the incident took place in the Sanwalikheda village in Khalwas area.
“We have booked the people ferrying the cattle for doing so without requisite permissions. We have also lodged a case against the villagers, including farmers, for ill-treating those booked for unauthorised cattle transport,” Khandwa Superintendent of Police Shiv Dayal Singh told PTI.
“Villagers brought the group transporting cows to our police station. We seized 21 trucks used for the purpose. The cows have been shifted to a shelter. They were taking the cows from Harda district in MP to Maharashtra,” said Inspector Harishanker Rawat of Khalwas police station.
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.
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The state cabinet last month approved the proposal to amend the MP Cow Progeny Slaughter Prevention Act, 2004.
The move to amend the law, cleared during the previous BJP government, came after a Muslim man and woman were beaten up on suspicion of carrying beef in MP’s Seoni district in May.
There has been a steady rise in hate crimes since the Narendra Modi government has come to power for the second time. Late last month, a 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari was lynched after being asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’.
In May, a man named Mohd. Qasim, a hawker, was shot at in Begusarai district fter being asked his name.
A 25-year-old Mohamad Barker Alam — a native of Bihar, living in the Jakob Pura area of Gurgaon.— was allegedly assaulted in Gurugram by four unidentified people in May for wearing a skull cap.
Gau rakshaks had also vandalised a dairy in the Gokul Nagar area of Raipur in Chhattisgarh, accusing the shop owners of selling beef.
(With inputs from PTI)