A group of policemen earlier this week assaulted and paraded two men accused of cow slaughter in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, The Hindu reported on Thursday. Members of Hindutva groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal later felicitated the policemen.

Videos of the men being paraded on Monday were widely shared on social media. In the videos, 37-year-old Salim Mewati and 23-year-old Aaqib Mewati can be seen being marched down a road by police personnel. One of the policemen is seen hitting the men with a lathi.

The men can be heard being forced to shout: “The cow is our mother, the police is our father.”

Guruprasad Parasar, the Ujjain additional superintendent of police, said that the incident was “not such a serious matter”, The Hindu reported.

“Police did not beat them up like it is being shown,” the newspaper quoted Parasar as having claimed. “Someone may have hit them once or twice. Someone took the video and the local media portrayed the matter this way.”

The two men and another person were spotted near Jaithal village near Ujjain on February 16 with a sports utility vehicle and a cow that had been tied up.

The police were alerted about the men by Bajrang Dal members, The Hindu quoted Ghatia police station in-charge DL Dasoriya as saying. He said that a cow, a calf, and several knives and other equipment used to slaughter and skin animals were recovered from the spot.

Salim Mewati and Aaqib Mewati were arrested near Indore on Sunday. The police are still searching for the third person.

A case was registered under sections of the 2004 state Act that prohibits cow slaughter.

“They used to catch stray cows and oxen, and slaughter them to sell their meat and skin,” Dasoriya claimed. “During interrogation, they have confessed to having slaughtered over 1,000 cows and oxen.”

Vinod Sharma, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Malwa chief, told The Hindu that local members of the organisation and the Bajrang Dal had felicitated the police personnel.

“We don’t usually felicitate in public but these officers had done a commendable job by catching these infamous men who have been involved in cow slaughter and smuggling in the area,” Sharma was quoted as saying. “The way of punishing may vary but if the cops have done a good job, we should thank them.”