A police team rushed to the spot after the video went viral on social media late on Tuesday evening to check the authenticity of the clip.
The incident took place near Bamhora under Nagod police station in the district on Tuesday afternoon, police said.
“Preliminary investigation by police suggested that around 50 cattle were thrown into Satna river under a railway bridge near Bamhora. Around 20 of them might have perished after being swept away in the swollen river”, Nagod police station in-charge Ashok Pandey said.
According to him, a police team was sent to the spot as soon as the police learnt about the video.
However, the exact number of cattle that were tossed into the river was yet to be ascertained, he said.
Four people, identified as Beta Bagri, Ravi Bagri, Rampal Choudhari and Raju Choudhari were arrested in connection with the incident, Mr Pandey said.
The four accused were arrested under relevant sections of Madhya Pradesh Gauvansh Vadh Pratisedh Adhiniyam, a law that prevents killing of cows in the state, and also under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, police said.
A manhunt was launched to arrest the other accused in the incident, he added.
Preliminary police investigation suggested that a group of villagers came together to teach a lesson to stray cattle for damaging their standing crops in the agricultural lands by throwing them into the river, sources said.
They herded all the cattle in the area and took them to the river bank where they surrounded them and pushed one after another in the river, police said.
In the two-minute video clip, several people were seen herding the cattle towards the river and then pushing them into the river.
Some cattle were seen caught in a whirlpool at a check dam built over the river and drowning.
In the video clip, some people were seen surrounding the drowning cattle at the check dam to deny them swimming to the shore.
