"Cow is just an animal and an animal cannot be anyone's mother, if I like to eat beef then what's harm in it, even people worldwide consume beef, if I like to too eat then who can stop me..." he said during a function at Banaras Hindu University here.
Katju said he too ate beef and was not harm in it.
"Are those people across the world who eat beef are bad and only we (in the country) who don't eat are saints and seers, whats harm in it when people eat beef, I too eat and will even continue to eat further..." he said.
"I too came to know from media and others that an announcement was made from (inside) a temple that a man eats beef and then mob rushed and lynched that man.
Also Read
"What could be more unfortunate than this that a man is killed on the basis of rumour and for no other reason. The culprits must be given severe punishment at an earliest," he told reporters.
Later, agitated over Katju's remarks, several students staged protest and shouted slogans against him.
Iqlakh was dragged out of his home and stoned to death on a village street after a public announcement from the local temple that the family had slaughtered a calf and eaten its meat. While Iqlakh died, his 22-year-old son Danish is battling for life at a hospital following two brain surgeries.