Suspected for abandoning cow, 70-yr-old’s face inked

A crowd reportedly blackened the face of a 70-year-old man, tied him to a cow and paraded him through a village in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district, about 300 kilometre from Lucknow.

The mob suspected that Kailash Nath Shukla, a septuagenarian resident of Lakshmanpur village in the district, had abandoned the cow.

The old man, who suffered serious injuries on his head, chest and stomach, was admitted to the district hospital.

According to police sources in Lucknow, Shukla was taking the cow to a veterinary hospital for treatment, when the incident occurred.

''The rope with which I was holding the cow suddenly snapped and the cow started running on the road... I was trying to the catch the animal, when some people caught me and accused me of abandoning the cow,'' Shukla said.

He said that he pleaded his innocence and kept saying that he was taking the cow to the veterinary hospital but the crowd did not listen.

Sources said that the mob blackened his face and then paraded him in the lanes of the village after tying him to the cow.

Shulka was later rescued by the police.

Police said that a case was lodged against unidentified people and the matter is being investigated.

Barely a few days back, a youth who worked in a Gulf country as a tailor, who recently returned home, was lynched by a mob which suspected him of stealing a buffalo.

Earlier also, there have been several instances of mob-lynching in different parts of the state over suspected cow slaughter.