New Delhi: Just days after the brutal lynching of 20-year-old Shahrukh Khan in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, cow vigilantes struck again in the state, this time their target a 70-year-old man in Balrampur district who was taking his cow to the vet.

According to reports, and as can be seen in a video on social media, Kailash Nath Shukla, a resident of Lakshmanpur village, was taking his cow to another village for medical attention when he was accused by a group of ‘gau rakshaks‘ of abandoning his cow. The agitated gau rakshaks then started to thrash the septuagenarian with sticks and eventually threw him into a gutter.

All the while, Shukla pleaded for them to stop the abuse and tried to communicate repeatedly that he is a Brahmin. According to DNA, people in the village got even more aggravated when someone suggested that his intention was probably to go to the nearby village to sell his cow to a Muslim. The mob then reportedly pulled the farmer from the gutter, blackened his face, shaved his head and chained him.

“I was taking my cow to Juathana-Srinagar town in the district for treatment when half-a-dozen villagers surrounded me outside Achanpur-Nandnagar. They accused me of taking the cow somewhere to abandon it and started beating me,” Shukla told reporters.

Shukla was then paraded in the village, while the vigilantes can bee seen hooting and whistling in the behind him, prodding him on. The message was clear: anyone who dares to disrespect the cow will meet a similar fate or worse.

Reports claim Shukla went to a nearby police station but was unable to lodge an FIR.

So far, four persons – identified as Dinesh Shukla, Umesh Tiwari, Jeevan Lal and Nankane Kumar – have been arrested, and Shukla has been admitted to the district hospital with a fractured right arm. According to the Telegraph, all four have been linked by police sources to the Hindu Yuva Vahini, which was founded by chief minister Yogi Adityanath a decade ago when he was an MP.

“A case has been lodged and more arrests will be made after identifying those involved in beating the old man. An inquiry has also been ordered against policemen who refused to lodge his case. Action will be initiated against them too,” DNA quoted superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar as saying.