Haryana police formed a special investigation team on Friday after a Muslim barber alleged his right arm was hacked off by four people in Panipat on August 24.

Akhlaq Salmani, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, told police his arm was chopped off around 1.30am on August 24 in Panipat town, where he had gone in search of a job. Salmani’s brother, Ikram, alleged the crime was committed after the culprits allegedly spotted the number 786 tattooed on his right arm. “My brother’s hand was cut because 786 was written on his hand,” alleged Ikram. The number 786 has a holy context in Islamic religious scriptures.

Panipat superintendent of police, Manisha Chaudhary, confirmed the crime but added that Salmani did not mention the tattoo in his complaint. The FIR, lodged on September 7, said around 1.30am on August 24, Salmani was near the Kishanpur area of Panipat, searching for water. When he knocked at a house, four people allegedly attacked him with sticks and bricks, dragged him to a nearby saw machine and chopped his right arm off with a chainsaw. They later dumped him near the railway track, the FIR added.

However, a second FIR filed on September 7alleged that Akhlaq sodomised a young boy on August 23 and his hand was cut off when he fell on nearby railway tracks while fleeing from the spot. Both the FIRs were filed on September 7 after he recorded his statement from a hospital bed at PGIMS, Rohtak, where police admitted him after spotting him on railway tracks on August 24.