Cuttack: Four persons were allegedly assaulted on the suspicion of cattle smuggling, near Baula Chhak in Bidanasi here late Sunday.
Sources said the injured persons were undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital here.
Rumours of cattle smuggling in the area had been doing the rounds since the past few days and late Sunday, the locals were on a hunt to nab the culprits. Meanwhile, they intercepted a vehicle near Baula Chhak.
Four persons from inside the vehicle were pulled, thrashed and the vehicle was later torched by the angry mob, sources added.
After being informed, cops rushed to the place and rescued the injured.
A probe has been launched to ascertain the matter, police said.
It may be mentioned here that the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha July 18 last year that it does not maintain any specific data on lynching incidents in the country.
This was a day after the Supreme Court asked the Parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism, saying “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to become a new norm, the apex court had said.
The Supreme Court asked the Parliament July 17 last year to see whether a new law can be framed to combat the menace of cow vigilantism.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) also does not maintain any database on violence related to cow vigilantism. However, database records of an independent website claim that as many as 86 incidents of cow-related violence have been reported in the country since 2012.
A report last year said that the government would maintain data on lynching.
Notwithstanding the absence of a data set on cow lynchings, more and more sporadic incidents of attacks by cow vigilantes against Muslims and Dalits, mostly on suspicions of cow smuggling or consumption, have been seen since the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, northern Uttar Pradesh, in September 2015.
