Suspected cattle smugglers on Monday night shot dead a 20-year-old youth at Pipraich in Gorakhpur, with police denying the incident apparently because it is the home town of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

A mob protesting on Monday night turned violent around 7.30am on Tuesday and pelted the police with stones and damaged vehicles.

The incident occurred in Jungle Chhatradhari village, and the local administration has deployed paramilitary forces at the spot and assured the villagers that the guilty will be punished.

Durgesh Kumar Gupta, father of the deceased Deepak Gupta, told reporters on Tuesday: “My son saw the cow smugglers and raised an alarm. While running away in their two mini trucks, they abducted Deepak, shot him outside the village and threw him out of the truck. The police kept claiming that there was no such incident and that Deepak had fallen from a truck during a scuffle with the driver. However, the bullet mark is clearly visible to everybody.

“The police kept terrorising the villagers the entire night. They wanted to suppress the incident because they claim every day that the CM’s district is crime-free,” he added.

Deepak, a Class XII student, had allegedly seen the suspected smugglers when he was on his way to serve dinner to his grandfather.

Raj Karan Nayyar, senior superintendent of police of Gorakhpur, denied Deepak was shot.

“We received information around 3am that some cattle smugglers were in the village. The villagers told us that while they had managed to intercept a truck and get hold of its driver, the other truck bolted away. A youth of the village tried to give chase to another truck and climbed onto it, but was pushed by the criminals. He suffered head injuries after falling from the truck and died,” said the officer.