Ujjain: Police parade, assault men accused of cow slaughter, Hindutva groups felicitate personnel

A group of policemen earlier this week assaulted and paraded two men accused of cow slaughter in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, The Hindu reported on Thursday. Members of Hindutva groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal subsequently felicitated the policemen.

Videos of the men being paraded in public on Monday were widely shared on social media. In the videos, 37-year-old Salim Mewati and 23-year-old Aaqib Mewati can be seen walking on a road accompanied by police personnel. One of the policemen is seen hitting the men with a lathi.

The men can be heard being forced to shout: “The cow is our mother, the police is our father”.

Two Muslim men were beaten and paraded through a busy area by the #MadhyaPradesh’s #Ujjain police recently on allegations of cow slaughter. pic.twitter.com/7j8IotzDNN— The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) March 6, 2025

Guruprasad Parasar, the Ujjain additional superintendent of police, said that the incident was “not such a serious matter”, The Hindu reported.

“Police did not beat them up like it is being shown,” the newspaper quoted Parasar as having claimed. “Someone may have hit them once or twice. Someone took the video and the local media portrayed the matter this way.”

The two men and another person were spotted near Jaithal village near Ujjain on February 16 with a sports utility vehicle and...

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