Indian police have detained at least two more suspects in connection with a mob murder of a Muslim man in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Satish Ganesh, a senior police official for Uttar Pradesh, said on Saturday that the law enforcement agencies had arrested most of the suspects involved in the assassination.

“Total eight main accused (have been) arrested out of 10 named ones,” media outlets quoted Ganesh as saying.

He said police arrested six other suspects on September 30.

The arrests came days after Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was dragged from his house in the village of Bisada in Uttar Pradesh and beaten to death by about 100 people on September 28. The man was killed over rumors he had eaten beef, a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.

Akhlaq’s 22-year-old son was also seriously injured in the attack and has been undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital.

Rumors sparked after a calf was reported missing across the troubled region. Soon after, a temple made an announcement via loudspeaker that the family members had consumed beef and within minutes the mob tore through Akhlaq’s home before beating him to death.

The Muslim family has maintained they had mutton in the fridge and not beef.

The case has fuelled concerns as religious intolerance is growing under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The premier has been asked to speak out on the case after colleagues in his party came under increasing pressure for appearing to trivialize the crime.

Accidental murder?

Mahesh Sharma, the junior culture minister, told reporters during a visit to the victim's family on Friday that the incident should be dealt with as an accident. "If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don't agree. It was an accident and investigations should happen."

Slaughtering cows is banned in many states of India, where the majority of the population is Hindu.

However, India is also home to sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.

In March, the state of Maharashtra toughened its ban to make even possessing beef illegal. The move has been seen by religious minorities as a sign of the growing power of hardline Hindus since Modi came to power last year.

Indian opposition lawmakers have already demanded that Modi clarify his position on the alleged ongoing forced conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism.