M I Khan reports from Patna:

Three persons, including a truck driver, were badly beaten by a mob for allegedly carrying beef in Bihar's Bhojpur district on Thursday, police said.

A mob of local people, led by a few cow vigilantes, in Shahpur in Bhojpur stopped a truck on suspicion of carrying beef and beaten the driver and two others.

The victims pleaded for mercy but the attackers refused to relent.

A team of Shahpur police rescued the three but arrested them for carrying beef in the truck.

However, angry locals demanded the police to handover the accused to them. When the police refused they blocked Ara-Buxar road in protest.

Protesters accused the police of 'saving the accused'.

"It was us who caught the truck loaded with beef, not the police. They came later after being informed and rescued the three accused," a local Bajrang Dal leader Arjun Singh said.

According to police, the beef-loaded truck was on way from Shahpur to Muzaffarpur district.