Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Friday stayed the arrest of six family members of Mohammad Ikhlaq, who was killed by a mob in Uttar Pradesh on September 29 last year on the suspicion that his family stored and consumed beef at their home.

But the court refused relief to Ikhlaq’s brother Jan Mohammad, the prime accused in the case. Cow slaughter is banned in Uttar Pradesh with a prison term of up to two years.

An FIR was lodged against the family last month after a government forensic probe said the meat recovered from Akhlaq’s home was beef, contradicting an earlier report that said it was mutton.

A petition was filed in local court by Akhlaq’s neighbours in Bisada village, and alleged that the family had killed a calf last September, and that Jan Mohammad was seen slitting the throat of the animal.

But the family of Akhlaq said that they neither consumed beef nor stored cow meat in their house.

On September 28 last year, a mob lynched Ikhlaq and thrashed his son Danish 22 on the suspicion that they had killed calf and consumed beef.

The terrorised family left the village and is living in Delhi, along with Ikhlaq’s older son, an air force technician.