Police Parades, Home Demolitions, Targeted Attacks on Muslims: A Year of ‘Cow Protection’ in Madhya Pradesh (The Wire)

Despite viral videos showing police personnel parading Muslim men over cow slaughter allegations, the police have denied any such claims.

Screengrab from viral videos: One showing police parading two men accused of cow slaughter; the other showing policemen being garlanded by Hintuva outfits for their actions. Photos: Huneza Khan

By Huneza Khan

Bhopal: Cow-related incidents continue to grip Madhya Pradesh as the state wraps up its year-long celebrations for “Gauvansh Raksha Varsh” (bovine protection year) in March 2025. A viral video, which is now drawing sharp criticism, showed policemen parading two Muslim men accused of cow slaughter.

An officer was seen striking them with a pipe in broad daylight. The men, visibly terrified, were further forced to chant slogans to the tune: “Gaay hamari maata hai, police hamari baap hai (Cow is our mother, police is our father)”. They were so badly beaten that they struggled to walk properly. Hindutva outfits later garlanded the inspector and other policemen, offering them sweets for their actions, another video showed.

The video, purportedly from March 3 in Jaithal, a locality in Ghatiya village, Ujjain, surfaced after their arrest, raising fresh concerns over law enforcement’s role in cow-related vigilantism. 

This is not an isolated case. On March 8, five men were arrested in Damoh for allegedly slaughtering a pregnant cow. They were paraded on their way to the court, and their “illegal” properties were demolished. They were arrested for allegedly slaughtering a pregnant cow. 

Meanwhile, in another incident, two men, Ballu Pahade and Virendra Pahade, were caught with 75 kilograms of allegedly cow meat on January 31. However their arrest, on the same cow slaughter charges, saw little police action or media attention.

Speaking to The Wire, Ujjain Superintendent of Police Pradeep Sharma said he did not receive any such complaint of parading, and that it was inappropriate to treat any accused of any crime in such a manner. 

He denied seeing the videos and refused to comment without reviewing it.

Human rights violation complaint 

This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.

Related Articles

×