A Bajrang Dal leader in Bihar has been accused of brutally assaulting minority community members seeking alms.

The police have registered an FIR against Vaishali district Bajrang Dal president Veer Kumar Singh alias Aryan Singh, who is untraceable since videos emerged of him beating with a stick six men who had been made to sit on their haunches.

The assaulted men belong to the Lalbegia and Mahaut communities from Uttar Pradesh, part of a group of downtrodden castes who make a living by travelling with colourfully decked up bullocks, a symbol of Lord Shiva’s carrier Nandi, for alms. These communities are known to be flexible in their religious views.

Singh and his associates accosted the six men near a temple on July 24 and asked them their name. On finding out that they were from the minority community, they accused the six of discrediting the Hindu religion and later took them to the police who let them go as they were not found to have done any wrong.

The police have registered an FIR against Singh “chiefly for outraging religious feelings and trying to create communal tension in the society”, Vaishali Sadar SDPO Raghav Dayal said.