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Updated: Mar 17, 2016 12:22 IST

Four Kashmiri undergraduate students, who were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly cooking beef in their hostel room at Mewar University, have been let out on bail.

They were released by the Gangrar sub-divisional magistrate’s court in Chittorgarh on Wednesday, after a board of experts confirmed that the meat in question was not beef.

Rumours spread on Monday night that the accused students — Shakib Ashraf, Hilal Farukh, Mohammad Makbool and Shaukat Ali — were cooking beef in their hostel room, following which they were manhandled by fellow-students and local residents. Some even assembled in front of the university, an institution that claims to have a 100% vegetarian campus, and demanded action. Police arrested the four students — all between 21 and 27 years of age — under Section 151 of the IPC (disturbing the peace) the following day.

Read: Kashmiri students arrested after beef rumours at Rajasthan university

“They were questioned about their role in bringing the meat to the hostel and cooking it,” Gangrar station house officer Labhu Ram Bishnoi said, adding that a veterinary medical board was then formed to test samples of meat collected from the hostel.

“But the board concluded that it was not beef. We also found during an investigation that they had bought 300 grams of some other meat from a local shop,” he said.

University PRO Harish Gurnani said the whole episode arose from rivalry between two groups of students at the institution. “We are counselling both the groups, and have formed a probe committee to look into the incident,” he told HT.

(With PTI inputs)