A group of men were tied up and forced to chant “gau mata ki jai” by villagers in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district on Sunday for allegedly transporting cattle illegally to Maharashtra, ANI reported. The incident took place in Sanwalikheda village in Khalwa tehsil.

In a video of the incident, 16 men are seen tied together, kneeling on the side of the road while holding their ears and chanting “gau mata ki jai”. The video also shows a man in a white shirt recording the incident on a mobile phone. Scroll.in has not independently verified the video.

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An unidentified police officer said more than 100 villagers paraded the men through a two-km stretch to the police station in Khalwa, PTI reported. “We seized 21 trucks used for the purpose,” said Inspector Harishanker Rawat. “The cows have been shifted to a shelter. They were taking the cows from Harda district in Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra.”

Khandwa Superintendent of Police Shiv Dayal Singh said the men who were tied together were booked for transporting cattle without requisite permits. “We have also lodged a case against the villagers, including farmers, for ill-treating those booked for unauthorised cattle transport,” PTI quoted Singh as saying.

Singh said the men claimed they owned the cattle and were taking the animals to a cattle fair in Maharashtra. However, they allegedly failed to prove their ownership, according to NDTV. “With none of the 24 men possessing valid documents to prove their claims and also transporting the cattle in vehicles in consonance with relevant guidelines, they were arrested and booked under provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Govansh Vadh Pratishedh Adhiniyam and provisions of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,” Singh added.

On Monday, the Kamal Nath government is likely to table an amendment in the Assembly to curb violence in the name of cow protection.