Lucknow, Jul 31 (IANS): An eatery owner in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida city has been arrested for torturing three minors and forcing them to cook dog meat, police said on Friday.

The three children aged between five to eight years were freed from his captivity late on Thursday.

The children accused the owner of the restaurant - My Spice Cafe' in the officers colony in Gamma I sector - of ill-treating them, brutally assaulting them and forcing them to cook dog meat.

An official told IANS that the children bore injury marks and their nails had been plucked by Avinash Kumar, the eatery owner.

The children also said the eatery owner subjected them to electric shocks if they refused to cook the dog meat which was cooked for Nigerian youth living in the area.

Police recovered five dogs from the restaurant.

A neighbour, Praveen Bhati, met them a few days ago and asked why they were crying. Bhati was shocked to hear their story and immediately informed the police which followed the complaint with a late night raid. The restaurant has been sealed.

Another partner of the restaurant Mukesh Rajput is absconding.

The minors have been sent to a children's home and police are trying to trace their parents.

"In our preliminary probe, it has come out that the children are from Jharkhand and were sold to the accused eight months back," an official said.