A mob of over 100 villagers tied up 25 people and paraded them 2km to a police station in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, accusing them of illegal cow transport, police said.
A video shows several stick-wielding people forcing a group of men to do squats holding their ears amid cries of “Gau Mata ki jai (Victory to Mother Cow)”.
An officer said the incident happened in Sanwalikheda village, about 60km from Khandwa district headquarters.
“We have booked the people ferrying the cattle for doing so without the requisite permissions. We have also lodged a case against the villagers for ill-treating those booked for unauthorised cattle transport,” Khandwa superintendent of police Shiv Dayal Singh said.
“The villagers brought the group transporting cows to our police station. We seized 21 trucks used for the purpose. The cows have been shifted to a shelter. They were taking the cows from Harda district to Maharashtra,” an inspector, Harishanker Rawat, said at Khalwas police station.
This Assembly session, which starts on Monday, the Kamal Nath government is likely to table an amendment to a cattle protection law, enacted during BJP rule, to curb violence by cow vigilantes.