Maharashtra: 3 Men Who Assaulted Elderly Train Passenger Over Beef Suspicion Out On Bail

As per the police, the attackers recorded the incident and shared it on social media. In the video, one of the accused was heard threatening to call Bajrang Dal activists.

Three men who were arrested for assaulting a 72-year-old man on a train in Maharashtra after accusing him of carrying cow meat were released on bail by a court in Thane district on Sunday. They were arrested on 31 August while travelling to Mumbai for a police recruitment test when they allegedly attacked the passenger. But, they were granted bail the next day because the Government Railway Police had not pressed non-bailable charges against them.

The accused—Akash Awhad, 30, Nitesh Ahire, 30, and Jayesh Mohite, 21—allegedly assaulted the senior citizen from Jalgaon, who was travelling on the Dhule-CSMT Express to visit his daughter in Kalyan on 28 August.

According to the senior citizen's complaint, filed after police persuasion, he boarded the train at Chalisgaon and found a seat when it reached Nashik. “When one of the men asked him to share the seat, the elderly person asked him if he would sit on his lap, as there was no room for another passenger. This angered the passenger. And when the senior citizen was collecting his luggage to get off at the Kalyan station, the men did not allow him to get down,” a police officer told The Indian Express.

The group then began verbally abusing and physically attacking the old man, demanding to see what he was carrying. Discovering two plastic jars filled with raw buffalo meat, they assaulted him, claiming it was beef.

After the assailants left the train at Thane, the senior citizen continued to Kalyan to visit his daughter. After a preliminary investigation, police confirmed he was carrying buffalo meat, which is legal in Maharashtra.

Police Persuaded Elderly Man To File Complaint After Viral Video

The police reported that the attackers recorded the incident on video and shared it on social media. In the video, one of the accused was heard threatening to call Bajrang Dal activists.

After the video went viral on social media, police tracked down the elderly man, persuaded him to file a complaint, and recorded his statement before registering a First Information Report (FIR).

The accused were charged under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 190 (unlawful assembly in prosecution of a common object), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 115(2) (causing hurt), 324(4)(5) (mischief causing loss or damage), 351(2)(3) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

They were arrested in Dhule after returning from Mumbai following the police recruitment test.