Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was killed by a mob in Dadri, UP, on September 28
The main accused in the mob lynching of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh's Dadri have admitted that they were "provoked by rumours of cow killing", reveals a police charge-sheet. The police, however, have not mentioned the word "beef" in their charges.
The charge-sheet comes three months after 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged out of his home and beaten to death by a mob following announcements that a calf had been killed. Akhlaq's son Danish was brutally beaten.
Vishal Rana, the son of local BJP politician Sanjay Rana and one of the 15 accused in the attack, allegedly confessed that he was told by "some people" Mohammad Akhlaq had "killed a cow."
"In the Hindu religion the cow is our mother. We were provoked, we went to Akhlaq's home. We attacked Akhlaq and his son, dragged Akhlaq till the transformer. The people who provoked me and my cousin Shivam, I know them by face, but don't know their names," Mr Rana is quoted by the charge-sheet as saying. His cousin appears to have echoed the version.
The 250-page charge-sheet also names two of Vishal's cousins.
The attack, says the charge-sheet, was driven by rumours of a 'particular type of meat at the victim's house'.
The police have also cited the statement of Shaista, Mohammad Akhlaq's daughter and Danish's sister.
She has said that the mob included boys she knew, and they were armed with sticks and even a cleaver.
The attackers, she said, broke doors and chased them through the house.
"We asked them why are you beating us... they all said you have slaughtered a cow and we won't let you live," Shaista told a magistrate last month.
"They were mercilessly beating my father and brother... they thought Danish had died, they left him...But they dragged my father out, then poured kerosene in the house. They said if you call the police we will kill you," she said.
Shaista also told the police that the mob took out meat from their refrigerator. "It was goat meat. We didn't slaughter any cow," she said.