Three activists of the right wing Hindu Yuva Vahini have been arrested for allegedly thrashing to death a 45-year-old Muslim man in village Sohi under Pahasu Police Station here yesterday, police said today.

According to SSP Muniraj G, those arrested are activists of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and were nabbed last night from the Pahasu town here.

Police officials however refused to disclose the names of the arrested persons.

However, Sunil Raghav, the district head of Hindu Yuva Vahini denied that any of the organisation’s members were involved in the incident. The Hindu Yuva Vahini was set several years ago by Yogi Adityanath, who is now the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The police had yesterday registered an FIR against one Gajendra and five other persons on a complaint by the son of Ghulam Mohammad, who had been beaten to death.

The deceased’s family members had blamed members of the right-wing Hindu Yuva Vahini for the incident.

Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Arvind Kumar Mishra had yesterday said that a 19-year-old man named Yusuf of Sohi had allegedly kidnapped an 18-year-old Hindu girl, a resident of village Fazalpur, also in the Pahasu area, on April 27.

He said the accused persons saw Ghulam, who was distantly related to Yusuf, in a mango orchard, dragged him to a secluded spot and beat him to death.

The ADM had said the men wanted to know about the whereabouts of Yusuf.