Violence in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri over cow slaughter rumours, 21 arrested

Lucknow, Oct 10: Days after 50-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob in Dadri's Bishara village following rumours over his consumption of beef, another incident of mob rampage erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri district on Friday in which two men were beaten up after rumours of cow slaughter spread like a wild fire in the area.

Violence broke out in Quraishiana locality of Mainpuri district, which happens to be the pocketborough of Samajwadi supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, after some people were reportedly caught slaughtering a cow and removing its skin.

Scores of people took to the streets and beat up the two men as the news spread.

Heavy police deployment has been made in the area to prevent any untoward incident. Police have so far arrested 21 people in connection with the case.

Mainpuri is located over 200 kilometres from Lucknow and 100 kilometres away from Agra.

District Magistrate Chandrapal Singh said, "A rumour was spread here that a cow has been slaughtered. But when we did a post-mortem of the cow yesterday (Friday), it came to the fore that the cow had been dead for sometime. The people who usually remove bodies of animals had taken away the cow and were removing its skin. That is how the rumour started about the cow being slaughtered."

Following this, some people came onto the streets and agitated. Police reached the spot and arrested those removing the skin of the dead cow, the District Magistrate said.

"Those who were taking out the skin were arrested as well as those who incited the violence on the streets. Twenty-one people, including two who were removing skin of the dead cow, have been arrested," he said.

Singh said that an FIR has been lodged against 29 named persons and 250 unidentified people for violence.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)