Consuming beef soup and posting a picture of it on Facebook landed a 24-year-old man in Tamil Nadu in a hospital with injuries after he was attacked by a group of four men for his choice of food.

The man, identified as Mohammad Faizan, is a native of Poravachery village in Nagapattinam district and runs a photocopy shop for a living.

“Whatever you say, beef is the best,” Faizan wrote with pictures of beef soup on his Facebook page at 3.19 pm on Thursday, unaware of the repercussions that he would face for the innocuous comment and post. Four hours later, the youth had to be admitted to the district headquarters hospital in Nagapattinam after he was attacked by four youth.

N Dinesh Kumar (28), R Agathian (29) A Ganesh Kumar (27) and M Mohankumar (28), who are said to be part of a little-known group, saw Faizan on the main road and thrashed him with wooden logs and iron rods leaving him profusely bleeding. Enraged relatives admitted Faizan to the hospital and lodged a complaint with the police.

“The four had picked up an argument with Faizan on how he can post such kind of pictures leading to injuries on his face,” a police officer said, adding that all four have been arrested. In a brief statement to media from his hospital bed, Faizan said the four spotted him on the main road and told him that he should not eat beef. “When I insisted this was my choice and my right, they took sickles and rods and beat me,” Faizan said.

Consumption of beef is quite common in Tamil Nadu and several restaurants, including those in Chennai, prominently display beef on their menu cards. This is probably the first incident in recent memory that a man has been beaten up for consuming food of his choice in Tamil Nadu, though such incidents have become the order of the day in parts of north India.

Police said a case has been registered against the accused.