Three people have been arrested on Sunday, 15 October, in connection with the attack in Faridabad on an auto-rickshaw driver and his friends by a group of cow vigilantes over suspicion that they were carrying beef, the police said.
Those arrested have been identified as locals Lakhan, Dileep, and Ram Kumar, said a police official, adding that they were being questioned at the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mujesar.
ACP (Mujesar) Radhshyam said that the arrested trio was being quizzed, and that others involved in the case would be nabbed soon.
On October 13, auto-rickshaw driver Azaad Mohammad – along with four friends, Isaan Mohammad and Shahzad (two brothers), Shakeel, and Sonu – were on their way from Fatehpur Billauch to Old Faridabad when around 20 men intercepted their vehicle near Bajri village, the police said.
According to Mohammad, the group thrashed them and then called up the police. They handed him to the police alleging that he was a cow-smuggler. The official said that based on the complaint of the group, initially a case was registered against the auto- rickshaw driver under laws related to cow slaughter.
On Saturday, 14 October, police registered a case under Sections 148, 149, 323, 341, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code at the Mujessar police station against 15 to 20 unknown persons for thrashing the five youth.
The five who were beaten up were also booked in a cross-case under the Haryana Gauvansh and Gausamvardhan Act of 2015 based on a complaint by Faridabad’s Sanjay Colony resident, Bittu Bajrangi.
"A laboratory test has since established that the seized meat was of buffalo and not cow or its progeny. After the report, 15 to 20 unknown persons were booked under the IPC," a senior police officer said.
No arrest has been made as yet.
Earlier, Bajrangi, who identified himself as the chief of the 'Gorakhsha Bajrang Force', told the police that members of his group had suspected that beef was being carried in the auto-rickshaw.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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