MP: Two Muslim women who were beaten for carrying 'beef' get bail

Mandsaur (MP), Jul 28: A local court granted bail to two Muslim women charged with carrying buffalo meat unlawfully after allegedly being beaten up by cow vigilantes on Tuesday.

Chief Judicial Magistrate M A Khan on Wednesday granted bail to Salma Mevati (35) and Shamim Akthar Hussain (30), both local residents, who were allegedly thrashed by cow vigilantes on the suspicion that they were carrying cow meat at the Mandsaur railway station yesterday.

The bail was granted on personal bonds of Rs 25,000 each and surety of equal amount, said advocate Umesh Parmar, one of their lawyers.

Parmar and another advocate Nirmal Joshi contended in the court that their clients have been falsely implicated. The two women were earlier booked under the stringent MP anti-cow slaughter act which provides for a maximum punishment of seven years.

But after the lab test proved that they were carrying buffalo meat, they were charged under Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Cattle Preservation Act, 1959, which provides a maximum punishment of one year.

The incident came close on the heels of the attack on Dalit youths in Gujarat by cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow, drawing outrage and triggering a slugfest between BJP and its rivals. Opposition BSP and Congress today created uproar in Rajya Sabha over the present incident.

PTI