One more person, Nityanand Mahto, was arrested in Ramgarh for lynching of a 45-year-old trader, Alimuddin, by a mob on suspicion of carrying beef in his car on Thursday.
“With this, a total of three persons are presently in police custody, while efforts were on to arrest others as a warrant has already been obtained from the court,” claimed Ramgarh SP Kishore Kaushal.
Mahto, said to be associated with the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), however, has demanded proper investigation in this regard, saying that he was innocent and had gone to take stock of the situation after the incident took place on Thursday.
“One of the accused has been arrested while the other one has surrendered before a court in Ramgarh. Total three persons are in police net,” said Kaushal. The process of arresting the remaining accused persons are on after obtaining arrest warrants against them, he added.
“If they do not get arrested by day after tomorrow, process of attaching their properties will be started after completing the required formalities in the court,” said the SP.
Notably, a mob of more than 100 people at Bazartand in Ramgarh lynched a 45-year-old trader Alimuddin alias Asgar Ali on suspicion of carrying beef in his car on Thursday afternoon. Remarkably, the incident took place on the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the nation that attacks on cattle traders, beef-eaters and dairy farmers, in the name of protecting cows were unacceptable.
The SP said an FIR had been lodged against 13 persons on the basis of video footage from various sources.
Ali was allegedly carrying four sacks of meat weighing around 200 kg. After being thrashed by the crowd, Police took him to Sadar hospital in Ramgarh from where he was referred to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi. Ali died minutes after being admitted to RIMS.
It was the second attack in recent days as cow vigilantes in Jharkhand as a 200-strong mob thrashed a 55-year-old Muslim dairy owner and set his house ablaze after a cow carcass was found near his home in Giridih district on Tuesday last.