Guwahati: A 68-year-old man was abused, assaulted and forced to eat pork as punishment for reportedly selling beef in Assam’s Biswanath district on Sunday. The incident came to light on Monday after a video went viral showing the man on his knees, begging the crowd to let him go.

Sources said Shaukat Ali was beaten on the road and the mob asked him if he was from Bangladesh and had licence to sell beef. He is currently being treated at a government hospital.

Assam police on Monday picked up five people for assaulting the 68-year-old. Police said some people had been warning Ali to not sell what they believed was beef. “We picked up five people but they were allowed to go after signing a good behaviour bond under Section 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure,” a police official said.

On February 7, five Bajrang Dal workers, including a minor, were arrested in Sakleshpur in Hassan district for allegedly setting ablaze a canteen run by two women on suspicion that they cooked and served beef.