UP Mob Lynching: Four persons have been taken into custody by the police in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, and three more are being sought after in connection with a formal complaint filed late on Tuesday night over the reported mob lynching of a 35-year-old Muslim man on suspicion of stealing.

On Wednesday, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party leaders, along with the victim's relatives, conducted a sit-in seeking the arrest of the other three suspects. Meanwhile, representatives of the Bajrang Dal vowed to mount a protest if the police guarded "protectors of a thief."

Three police stations have sent officers to the area, and given the obvious tension, further force has been requested. In protest on Wednesday, store owners in the Mama Bhanja area, the location of the tragedy, and at the Railway Bazar took down their shutters.

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“An FIR under IPC section 302 (murder) was registered at the Gandhi Park police station late on Tuesday night in this connection. We have arrested four persons named in the FIR so far and are trying to identify others involved in the incident through available video footage. No one will be spared,” said Mrigank Shekhar Pathak, Superintendent of Police, Aligarh city.

According to police, the man was beaten after being observed leaving the residence of textile dealer Mukesh Chand Mittal and running towards the main gate on Tuesday night. As Mittal's son Rohit, who had gone out to see off a visiting friend, confronted the stranger and shouted an alarm, he tumbled off the stairs and was quickly overcome by Mittal family members and others who had gathered there, according to police.

In videos of the incident circulating on social media, the man is shown being battered with lathis, punched, and kicked by the mob.

One of the videos shows the man, later identified as Mohammed Farid alias Aurangzeb, being carried along the road by a mob. A police officer was then seen bringing an injured Farid to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.