Members of the Gauraksha Samiti, a self-styled cow protection group, allegedly assaulted a Muslim couple on a train in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday after they objected to their luggage being searched for beef.
Police said that a laboratory test confirmed it was not beef but buffalo meat and the bag containing the “suspected item” didn’t belong to the couple — Mohammed Husain and wife Naseema Bano who were travelling on Wednesday to hometown Harda on the Kushinagar Express.
When they reached Khirkiya railway station, about 150km south of Bhopal and about 35km from the couple’s destination, the activists boarded the train and demanded to search their luggage for beef.
The couple says that they were travelling from Hyderabad to their hometown in Harda. Mohammed Hussain (43) says he and his wife Naseema Bano (38) was standing at the ‘crowded compartment’ and his wife was given a seat by the passengers when the activists came to check the luggage.
He says that his wife was pushed by the Samiti members when she objected to their luggages being checked. “When some passengers objected to their luggage being turned upside down, the activists roughed them up before they started searching the bags kept near Naseema. When she objected, they pushed her towards the toilet,” he said. He added that a constable rushed in to save his wife.
Hussain says he called up his relative who lived near the station who brought more locals with him and later engaged in a scuffle with the members on the platform. “The samiti members threw several bags on to the platform to inspect their contents before they found the black bag. The owners of that bag were not found,” he said. He said that he abused the members after they misbehaved with his wife and was beaten by them.
Harda MLA Ramkishore Dogne alleged that the administration had lodged the complaint against local relatives of Hussain under pressure from the Bajrang Dal and VHP. “First, they were harassed, then a complaint lodged against their relatives,’’ Dogne said.
Both the arrested persons, Rajput and Santosh have been sent to jail and a search has been launched to nab five other members of the samiti.
