MP 'beef' assault: 2 siblings held for selling meat to victims

Two more persons were arrested on Sunday in connection with an incident in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district, in which five persons had assaulted three others for allegedly carrying beef, following which the attackers and the victims were held.

With this, the number of people arrested in the May 22 incident, a video of which went viral on the social media, stood at 10, an official said.

According to the police, a group of five "gaurakshaks" (cow vigilantes) allegedly beat up two men with sticks and forced one of the victims to thrash a woman accompanying them with chappals.

While the five self-styled cow vigilantes were held under sections 341(wrongful restraint), 294 (obscene act), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (act done by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Arms Act, the three persons who got thrashed were arrested under the Madhya Pradesh Govansh Vadh Pratishedh Adhiniyam.

"We arrested siblings Rasheed Hakim (24) and Sammi Hakim (20) on Sunday for selling meat to the three people who were beaten up on May 22. The brothers are residents of Kheri village," informed Dunda Seoni police station in-charge GS Uike.

The police had impounded 140 kg of red meat, suspected to be beef, which has been sent to the laboratory for analysis, the official said.