Six persons were arrested on Wednesday for assaulting a Muslim man who has been accused of molesting a girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa city, NDTV reported.

The arrests were made after a video of the attack, which took place on January 3, was shared widely on social media. It shows a group of men surrounding the Muslim man, identified as Shahbaz, in the parking lot of a shopping mall and hitting him with canes after asking him some questions.

Shahbaz told reporters that he was assaulted for three hours. “They asked me my name and took me away,” he said when asked why he was assaulted.

Earlier, the police had filed a molestation case against Shahbaz, who is pursuing post-graduation in computer applications at a college in Khandwa.

The arrests were made on Wednesday after a delegation of the Muslim community met the Khandwa police chief.

“There was a conspiracy against him,” a Muslim leader named Syed Nisar Ali told NDTV. “He was wrongly accused and beaten up just because he is a Muslim.”

Khandwa Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh said the six accused were identified after the video went viral. “We had registered an FIR against unknown persons under relevant sections, including assault on the same day when the incident occurred,” he told ANI. “But the youth who was assaulted did not recognise the group of people who thrashed him.”