A man was beaten to death on Thursday in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on suspicion of carrying beef in his van, IANS reported. The report comes a day after more than a 100 people attacked a Muslim dairy farmer in the state’s Giridh district suspecting that he had slaughtered a cow.

A group of people lynched Asgar Ansari near Bajartan village and set his van on fire. He was taken to a hospital by the police, where he died during treatment.

“It’s premeditated murder,” RK Malik, additional director general of police, told PTI. “The killers have been identified.”

Some people with connections to the beef trade had hatched a conspiracy to kill Ansari, the police said, also claiming that the victim had been “chargesheeted for child abduction and murder”.

Clashes over transporting cattle in Tamil Nadu

Meanwhile, clashes broke out between members of two fringe outfits in Tamil Nadu’s Palani district on Wednesday over cattle being transported in a truck. At least five were injured, after which a case was registered against unknown persons for indulging in violence and damaging corporation buses, PTI reported on Thursday.

A priest had brought the truck to the police station to lodge a complaint that the vehicle had not followed guidelines while transporting cattle. Hours later, an unruly mob, including members of various Muslim organisations and Hindu outfits, gathered outside the police station, reported The Hindu. They pelted stones at the priest’s vehicle and staged demonstrations on the road, after which the police resorted to baton-charging.

Modi on deaths in the name of cow worship

The incidents were reported the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi disapproved of killings in the name of cow worship and said Mahatma Gandhi would have condemned such acts, as well. “Killing people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve,” he said.

The prime minister said no one had the right to take the law into their hands, and that there is no place for violence in a society as violence has never resolved any problem.