MEERUT, Oct. 12 -- Three men were thrashed by locals at a cremation ground in Azrada village under Mundali police station limits in Meerut district for allegedly performing occult rituals late Friday night. While one of them managed to flee, the other two were rescued and taken into custody for questioning, officials said here on Sunday.

Locals alleged that the trio had been removing half-burnt body parts from a funeral pyre and keeping the skull separately, while cooking rice in an earthen pot beside the burning pyre.

Police investigation revealed that the incident occurred around three hours after the cremation of a villager, Gajendra Singh, 32, who ran a hair salon in the Khajuri area and had been murdered a day earlier following a d...