New Delhi: Nadeem Qureshi, 19, was feeling "threatened and helpless" as he recalled the lynching of elder brother Qasim, 45, by alleged cow vigilantes near Delhi on Monday afternoon.

"Police are trying to save the killers, saying my brother was a victim of road rage. Justice seems a distant dream," Nadeem said on the sidelines of a news conference organised by the NGO United Against Hate at the Press Club of India on Friday.

"None from the government has spoken against the killing, as if we don't have a right to life."

Videos of the incident in the Hapur locality of Uttar Pradesh, 60km from Delhi, apparently filmed by some of those in the mob on their mobile phones, show three policemen dragging a bleeding Qasim, his clothes torn.

State police headquarters later issued a statement explaining the cops were dragging Qasim to their vehicle to take him to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

It apologised "for the insensitive manner in which the victim was handled by our policemen" and said all three "have been transferred to police lines and an inquiry has been ordered".

Qasim, a cattle trader, was apparently tricked into going to the sugarcane fields dividing two villages - Muslim-majority Madarpur and Thakur-dominated Bajhera - where he was attacked, suggesting it was a planned murder.

Nadeem said that some local youths had told Qasim that a group of prospective cattle buyers were waiting for him in the fields.

"He suspected nothing and rushed to the spot, where 10-15 people were waiting for him. They started beating him, and were joined in by more people from the nearby village," he said.

A relative, Samiuddin, 65, who rushed in from a nearby field to try to save him, was attacked too and is critical in hospital.

Qasim, the family's lone breadwinner, is survived by his wife and six children. He was the fourth man lynched by alleged cow vigilantes in a week.

On June 13, Sirajuddin Ansari, 45, and Murtaza Ansari, 40, were declared cattle thieves in Jharkhand and beaten to death. On June 20, Tauheed Ansari was killed on suspicion of carrying beef on his motorcycle in Ramgarh, Jharkhand.

In between, two police constables picked up meat seller Salim Qureshi from his home in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, took him to a private wedding hall and beat him mercilessly, his wife Farzana has alleged. Salim died on Thursday at AIIMS, PTI reported.

In the videos, Qasim appears to be pleading for water, with a group of young men seen in the background. Someone seems to tell the mob to give him water.

A voice can be heard in the background alleging cows have been tethered in the field for slaughter.

"It's so terrible that instead of showing mercy, some among the crowd were filming the murder, making sure they got the perfect close-up," Nadeem said.

Officers, however, said a mob had lynched Qasim after a minor motorcycle accident involving him and unidentified bikers. His family members who attended the news conference, however, insisted he had been killed because of a "cow-related" matter.

"I spoke to my brother in hospital and he said the mob had attacked Qasim suspecting he was involved in cow slaughter," said Mehruddin, brother of Samiuddin. "It was a cold-blooded murder but police have diluted the case."

Delhi University professor Apoorvanand, one of the speakers at the news conference, accused the Narendra Modi government of fomenting a climate of hate against Muslims in the run-up to crucial elections.

"The silence at the top is deafening and the motive behind such killings is to instil a sense of fear among the minority community," he said.

"We Hindus need to look within to see what we have become. It's so tragic that people are shooting videos of these mindless killings and jeering and cheering."

The police apology for the cops dragging Qasim to their vehicle said: "This picture seems to have been taken when the police had reached the spot to shift the injured to a police vehicle and because of non-availability of an ambulance at that moment, the victim was unfortunately carried this way.

"Admittedly the policemen should have been more sensitive in their conduct. The humane concerns got ignored in the urgency of saving a life and maintaining law and order."

An officer said on Friday night: "We have arrested two people and are probing all the angles. A preliminary probe has revealed that it was related to road rage. An FIR has been registered against 30 unknown people, whom we are trying to identify."