Five persons have been arrested. The police have filed an FIR on charges of attempt to murder and assured strict action against the accused.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Cow vigilantes brutally assaulted a driver and his pick-up van companion in Sadulpur in Rajasthan’s Churu District late on Sunday night. Both the victims are Hindus and were transporting lemons from Jaipur to Punjab when cow vigilantes intercepted them on suspicion of cattle smuggling.
The victims were identified as 29-year-old Sonu Bishnoi and 35-year-old Sundar Bishnoi, both residents of Fatehabad in Haryana.
A video of the incident shows that a mob armed with sticks thrashing the victims as they lie on the ground. The mob hit in their faces with shoes and kicked on their heads. After beating them, a man from the mob asked to open the backyard of the van to check what was inside.
Talking to reporters, Pushpendra Singh, an officer at the Sadulpur police station, said that they received a tip-off about two men being assaulted near toll booth in Laseri village late on Sunday night. A police force reached the spot and found the two severely injured men and took them to a hospital in Fatehabad.
Five persons have been arrested in this connection.
The victims said they were transporting lemons loaded in their vehicle from Jaipur to Punab’s Bathinda. A group of people on motorbikes and a jeep started chasing their van. As they reached the toll booth, the vigilantes started hitting their van with sticks. The mob took them out and started assaulting the occupants little caring to what the victims were saying. The mob was intent on accusing them of smuggling cows. The victims claim that they heard the names Sonu, Sonia, Varun, Dinesh when they were being beaten up.
The vigilantes also snatched the mobile phones of the victims.
The police have filed an FIR on charges of attempt to murder and assured strict action against the accused.
The violence unleashed by cow vigilantes was earlier limited to members of the Muslim community. The Sadulpur incident shows that even members of the Hindu community are not being spared by these so-called cow protectors. Dozens of people mostly members of the Muslim community have been beaten to death by these vigilantes across several states.
Last month, three Muslim men were lynched in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district when they were transporting buffaloes. Slaughtering or transporting buffaloes is not banned as per the laws. The cattle is not considered sacred as per the Hindu faith. However, Muslims were killed for even transporting buffaloes.
