A 30-year-old man, Mohammad Farid aka Aurangzeb, was allegedly beaten to death by a mob at a weekly market in Aligarh city on Tuesday evening, with conflicting versions portraying him as an innocent street vendor and an armed robber.

Six suspects — all local shopkeepers — were arrested on Wednesday, and two videos surfaced on Thursday showing a man being mercilessly beaten by some 15 people while he begs for mercy.

On Thursday, Hindu shopkeepers in the area kept their shutters down in protest against the arrests. At least 10 Muslim households from the locality — Mamu Bhanja — and the area behind a Radha Mohan temple put up posters saying they wanted to sell their houses.

“We are feeling unsafe after Aurangzeb’s murder. Thefts are not new here but some people may kill us on the basis of suspicion,” said Akram Ahmed, a local youth.

Aurangzeb’s mother Zubaida Begum said her son was a street vendor and had been selling clothes from his cart at the weekly market near Gandhi Park in the city’s Rangrejaan-Mamu Bhanja area for the past eight years.

“The (permanent) shopkeepers in the area didn’t want him to stand with his cart in front of their shops. They alleged he was doing a recce to commit some crime there,” she told reporters on Thursday.

“The truth is, they lynched him just because he was trying to survive by selling readymade clothes in the market.”

A woman relative of one of the arrested men on Wednesday lodged a police complaint saying Aurangzeb had entered their home to commit a robbery and was caught by a mob and lynched while trying to escape.

Police sources said one of the accused had claimed Aurangzeb had fallen to his death from the first floor of his home while trying to escape after a robbery.

Aurangzeb’s post-mortem report says he had 22 injury marks from being beaten with batons and other “blunt objects”, suffered three broken ribs, a punctured lungs and a fractured skull and died of excessive bleeding, a police source said.

A 138-second video has emerged that shows about 15 people — some armed with lathis — surrounding and thrashing a man. The victim is seen apologising for something and requesting the mob to spare him.

In another video, 109 seconds long, a mob asks the victim to tell the names of his friends who were allegedly doing a “recce” in the area. Someone in the mob shouts: “Break his knees.”

The victim is heard mentioning a name but insists that he (the victim) is only a street vendor.

Thousands attended the funeral procession of Aurangzeb, who was buried at the Shahzamal Kabristan on Wednesday evening amid heavy police security.

His neighbours allowed the last rites to be conducted only after the arrests had been made.

Abdul Hamid Ghosi, the Samajwadi Party’s city unit president, Salman Shahid, a Bahujan Samaj Party leader, and Vivel Bansal, a Congress leader, joined the funeral procession.

Aurangzeb, who was unmarried, was the second among three brothers and three sisters. His elder brother and all the sisters live in other cities. Aurangzeb lived with his mother and younger brother Jocky.

The police complaint lodged by a woman relative of one of the accused says Aurangzeb and two accomplices had barged into her home, carrying weapons, on Tuesday night and locked the family in a room.

“They misbehaved with the women and left with jewellery and about Rs 4 lakh in cash. While running away, Aurangzeb fell on the road but his friends escaped. He was caught by the people when we raised the alarm,” the complaint reads.