Bhopal: A 35-year-old man linked to a right-wing cow vigilante group was attacked with sharp-edged weapons and then shot dead by a group of men in Madhya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district, the police said on Saturday. The incident was captured on video by a witness on his mobile phone.

Ravi Vishwakarma, the district in-charge of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad “gau raksha” wing, was coming back from Hoshangabad with two other people in a car on Friday when the incident took place in Pipariya town, around 150 km from Bhopal, the police said.

“A group of men assaulted the Vishwakarma and two other people in the car with sharp-edged weapons. They then fired two rounds, one of which hit Vishwakarma in the chest, killing him at that moment. The other two also got injuries. The attackers ran away,” police officer Satish Andhwan said.

“We have registered a case against 10 people and efforts are on to catch them. It may be a fallout of an old hatred between Vishwakarma and the attackers. He was the district in charge of the VHP’s gau raksha wing,” the police added.

In the video of the incident, six to eight men, some of them with their faces covered with towels and scarves are seen first damaging the car near a bridge. A woman is heard coaxing the man recording the video to leave the area.

The assailants who are seen brandishing steel rods break the windows of the car and then force two men escorting the VHP leader to come out of the car. The men then fire into the car with a pistol and pull out Vishwakarma and beat him with rods to make sure he is dead.

A functionary of the VHP in area Gopal Soni told that it was a planned murder. “Vishwakarma was working for the protection of cows as district chief of VHP’s gau raksha wing. His killing should be investigated carefully,” Mr. Soni said.

Cow slaughter is illegal in most of India and several vigilante groups take to enforcing the law themselves, often violently.