MEERUT, Oct. 13 -- 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 dispute with some youths. Dozens of angry residents, along with the deceased's relatives, caught hold of the trio and thrashed them before one managed to escape. Upon being informed, police reached the spot, rescued the remaining two men, and took them into custody. Ramshankar, an eyewitness, identified one of the men as Balbir, a self-styled tantrik. "He is not from our village but has been practising tantra for a long time. This is the first time he was seen doing such an act here," Ramshankar told the police. Sarfaraz, another villager, said several children's graves in the local cemetery had recently been found dug up, with bodies missing. "We thought animals might have done it, but now it seems Balbir might have exhumed the bodies for occult rituals," he said. Mundali SHO Ram Gopal Singh said: "Both the accused are being interrogated. Action will be taken based on the investigation," he said. SP (rural) Abhijeet Kumar said two suspects -- Balbir and Imran -- had been arrested for tampering with a cremated body. "A case has been registered, and both have been sent to jail following court orders," he added. Police confirmed that an earthen pot containing rice was found placed on the embers of the pyre....