The Kerala restaurant, near the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad, which was targeted by members of Bajrang Dal allegedly for serving beef on Friday, drops the beef dishes from the menu.
“We’ve removed beef from the menu for a while. We used to sell buffalo meat, not cow meat, but we’ve taken it off the menu,” restaurant staff told FoEJ Media.
The restaurant, Jashyyettan’s Kerala Thattukada, was enveloped in tension on Friday when members of a group of right-wing vigilantes allegedly attempted to forcibly shut the restaurant for serving beef.
The right-wing vigilante group, comprising Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), stormed into the restaurant, asked the customers to vacate it, and allegedly asked the staff to shut down the operations of the restaurant as it serves beef.
“Around 30 people had come. The owner wasn’t at the restaurant at that time—he was in Kerala—so they told the staff to close it. The staff then shut down the restaurant, but later, when a police complaint was filed, the restaurant was reopened it,” the staff told FoEJ Media.
“They came empty-handed, without any weapons. All the rumors about them carrying weapons are false,” the staff added.
The cow slaughter and consumption of cow meat are illegal in Telangana under the state’s Prohibition of Cow Slaughter and Animal Preservation Act of 1977, however, the law gives permission to slaughter buffaloes. According to staff who spoke to FoEJ Media, the restaurant only served buffalo meat and has now resumed normal functioning, but has dropped the beef dishes for a while.
As per the accounts of the eyewitness, the group accused the owners of misleading the public by serving beef in a largely vegetarian neighborhood. The restaurant was popular among students and locals for its traditional beef dishes.
The restaurant owner lodged an FIR in Osmania Police Station, which reads, “At around 5:50 pm, some unknown persons illegally entered the restaurant, abusing him and his staff in filthy language and threatening them not to sell beef.”
Based on the FIR, a case was registered under Sections 329(4) (criminal trespass), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) along with 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
