A group of kanwariyas set fire to a mini-truck on Thursday over the “foul smell” of raw meat coming out of it and beat up the driver.
Videos suggest the police were at the site, on the Badaun-Farrukhabad highway in Shahjahanpur district, and took the injured driver into custody while the pilgrims torched the vehicle.
Kanwariyas have been accused of all kinds of hooliganism during the month-long pilgrimage season that began on July 11, but chief minister Adityanath has publicly exonerated them.
“A bad smell on the road left many kanwariyas irritated. We forced the driver to stop and found the vehicle was carrying animal meat and bones,” Pramod Singh, a kanwariya, told reporters at the site.
“There were several hundred kanwariyas on the road. We don’t know who attacked the driver and set the mini-truck on fire.”
Singh said: “The traffic police had told us that the road was meant solely for kanwariyas and no vehicle was allowed on it. How did the meat-laden truck get there, then?”
Shahjahanpur superintendent of police Rajesh Dwivedi said the mini-truck was carrying “some body parts of buffaloes” and was headed from Farrukhabad to Sambhal.
“The kanwariyas set it on fire after the driver got into some sort of argument with them. An inquiry is on,” he said.
Sources quoted driver Shiv Kumar as telling the police that he worked for a meat supplier. “This is my usual route; the police waved me on…,” Dwivedi was quoted as saying.
“The police were present when the kanwariyas pulled me out and started thrashing me. Someone from the crowd saved me but the police just looked on.”
Kumar added: “I have provided the details of my employer. I have all the vehicle papers and a copy of the meat supply licence.”
The kanwariyas were headed to the Patna Devkali Temple in Kalan to offer Ganga water to Lord Shiva.
Different groups of kanwariyas have been accused of vandalising shops over price disputes, damaging vehicles in bouts of road rage and blocking highways for hours. They allegedly beat up a CRPF jawan at a railway station.
Adityanath has blamed the violence on “infiltrators” intent on maligning the Hindu religion, and accused the pilgrims’ critics of slandering them.