Nagpur: The BJP minority cell member who was beaten up by cow vigilantes in Nagpur three days ago has been sacked from the party after lab tests confirmed he was carrying beef.

According to sources, police has filed a case against Salim Shah Bharsingi. He is likely to be arrested once he is discharged from the hospital, where he is currently recuperating from the numerous injuries he received on his face and neck after being attacked by four-five men.

BJP’s Nagpur rural unit chief, Rajiv Potdar, said Salim was dismissed from the party as soon as police told them about the results of the forensic test on the meat seized from the victim. “It is shocking. He should be given strict punishment,” he told News18.

Salim was the president of BJP’s minority cell in Katol division in Maharashtra for 12 years. He was thrashed with rods and sticks by a few men said to be members of Prahar Sanghatan, a fringe group that is allegedly linked to local MLA Bachchu Kadu. The incident was widely condemned and a video clip of it circulated on social media. Four people were arrested for the assault.

“Shah was returning home from Amner village with 15 kg meat on his motorcycle when four persons accosted him, accused him of carrying beef and beat him up,” Jalakheda police station Inspector Vijaykumar Tiwari had said.

“They got hold of me and started beating me. And they beat me so badly that I thought I was going to die. I kept telling them that it was mutton and not beef,” said Shah. It was learnt that he was a BJP member only a day after the attack. His case may be the first instance of a registered BJP member having been roughed up by cow vigilantes.

The BJP had played down the cow vigilante attack, calling it a stray incident. “We condemn this incident, but one cannot term it a failure of law and order machinery because this is a stray incident,” BJP spokesman Niranjan Shetty said.