Police have registered a case against the five accused based on a complaint filed by victim Chandan Ravidas (40), and launched an investigation.
Five Muslims allegedly thrashed a Dalit man for refusing to eat the meat of cow, a sacred animal for Hindus, and ultimately forced him to consume the beef in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand.
Police have registered a case against the five accused based on a complaint filed by victim Chandan Ravidas (40), and launched an investigation.
According to the FIR copy accessed by The New Indian, the accused were consuming liquor and beef at a corner near paan shop in Radhanagar area on the night of December 31. Chandan had gone to attend the call of nature when the group saw him.
They called Chandan and offered him liquor and beef. Initially, they tried to persuade her and when he did not relent, they tried to physically force him to eat beef, which led to a tiff.
Narrating his ordeal, Chandan said that the group chased him down on a bike when he was heading towards his home. They made him put off his clothes in the chilly weather and thrashed him with sticks.
“They broke my hand with a boulder and snatched my mobile phone ₹7000 in cash. I heard them saying, ‘this is a Dalit man. Let’s kill him, otherwise, we would land in serious legal trouble,” reads his complaint.
“After beating me, they offered me ₹5-10 lakhs for not filing a police complaint,” Chandan told media persons.
The main accused has been identified as 30-year-old Mithun Sheikh.
In his complaint, Chandan said, “I somehow managed to escape from their clutches. On the next morning on January 1, I caught hold of Mithun Sheikh when I was going to the police station to file the complaint, but some influential people from the area allowed.”
It may be noted that slaughter and sale of cow meat were banned by the Central government in 2017 across India except for a few states like Kerala, West Bengal and northeastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim.