A van driver was reportedly partially blinded after he was mercilessly beaten up for honking at a cow on Sunday.  The incident, said to be a case of cow vigilantism, took place on National Highway 107, some 250 km from the state capital Patna.

Driver Ganesh Mandal sustained serious injuries and has been admitted to a nearby hospital, but is said to have lost vision in his left eye.

According to sources, Mandal, a native of Gopalpur in Bhagalpur, was returning home when he had to stop his pick-up van on NH 107 as a cow was blocking his way.

He honked so that the cow could make way for the vehicle, but the bovine panicked and moved away.
This infuriated the owner of the cow, Ram Dular Yadav, who, along with some locals, not only mercilessly thrashed Mandal, but rained lathi blows on him.

“Mandal became unconscious after being hit in the left eye. He was immediately shifted to a nearby public health centre. However, since he was bleeding profusely and complaining of losing vision in the left eye, he was shifted to Saharsa Government Hospital,” said Md Izhar Alam, local station house officer.

“When Mandal gained consciousness, he complained of losing sight in one eye. Since the patient was bleeding and sustained grievous injuries to the left eye, the possibility of losing vision was not ruled out,” said the doctor attending to Mandal.

As Saharsa Civil Surgeon
A K Singh was not in the district, it was decided to shift Mandal to Bhagalpur for advanced treatment.