Lucknow: The face of a septuagenarian was blackened, one of his legs was chained and he was tonsured, garlanded with creepers, thrashed, paraded on the streets and thrown into a ditch after a mob in eastern Uttar Pradesh alleged that he was abandoning his cow.

It then turned out that Kailash Nath Shukla, 70, was taking the cow to a vet in a nearby town for treatment.

The four arrested so far have been linked by police sources to the Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by Yogi Adityanath a decade ago when he was an MP and before he became chief minister.

The atrocity unfolded in Balrampur district on Thursday but the news reached Lucknow, 170km away, when a video clip was circulated later.

"I was taking my cow to Juathana-Srinagar town in the district for treatment when half-a-dozen villagers surrounded me outside Achanpur-Nandnagar. They accused me of taking the cow somewhere to abandon it and started beating me," Shukla told reporters, detailing the content of his complaint to superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar Rai on Saturday.

Shukla, a farmer, is now being treated at Balrampur district hospital with a fractured right hand. The arrested four have been identified as Dinesh Shukla, Umesh Tiwari, Jeevan Lal and Nankane Kumar.

Shukla said he could not muster the courage to register a police complaint immediately. The cow is at his home and urgently needs treatment, he said.

"The police registered a case against the accused as soon after Shukla approached us and arrested four persons. We are trying to identified and nab other culprits," SP Rai said.