MP: Two arrested for assaulting Muslim women over suspicion of carrying beef

Neemuch: Two women were on Wednesday arrested for their alleged involvement in beating two Muslim women at Mandsaur railway station on suspicion of carrying beef which later turned out to be calf meat, police said.

"The two women, Rajni Tiwari alias Bitti and Manju Gurjar, were arrested from here after they were identified on the basis of video footage," Superintendent of Police, Railway, Mahesh Jain told reporters.

They were arrested under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC, he said, adding they were not associated with any outfit.

The incident of beating Muslim women--Salma and Shamim Bi- -on July 26 for allegedly carrying beef had drawn outrage. The opposition BSP and Congress had created uproar in Rajya Sabha over the incident.

The accused women had been missing since the day of the incident. Police had printed pamphlets on the basis of video footage and distributed them in various towns and cities, the SP said.

"Acting on a tip-off, we took into custody Rajni initially from Neemuch and after questioning she revealed that they were coming back from Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and boarded Ratlam-Agra Fort train for Neemuch," Jain said.

They had boarded the train from Jaora and had a fight with the victims over a seat. When the train reached Mandsaur railway station and the victims were confronted by cow vigilantes, during which the two accused women also beat them, he said.

The SP said that the two arrested women do not have any connection with any radical or other organisation.

They were later released on furnishing a surety of Rs 5,000 each, Jain said.

Two women, thrashed at Mandsaur railway station on the suspicion of carrying beef, had earlier alleged that they were beaten at the behest of Bajrang Dal workers.

Subsequently, the GRP had arrested four persons in this connection.

The case was initially registered by Mandsaur Police and later transferred to the Government Railway Police as the incident took place on the railway platform.

The incident came close on the heels of the attack on Dalit youths in Gujarat for skinning a dead cow.