Delhi police trade fire with alleged cattle thieves
The police fired around a dozen rounds in self defence. Finally, a bullet fired by the police deflated one of the truck’s tyres, forcing the cattle thieves to stop.
Recently named India’s most backward district by NITI Aayog, Mewat has emerged a hub for cattle smuggling, with several instances being reported from the district over the past year.
One of the alleged cattle lifters suffered two bullets wounds in his legs and was arrested. He was identified as Liyakat Ali from Mewat. His accomplice, Taj Mohammad, who climbed and hid in a tree was also arrested. At least six more men managed to flee on foot, the police said. Six stolen cows were recovered from the truck. .
Devender Arya, deputy commissioner of police (police control room), said that a head constable suffered injuries to his legs as he lost his balance while scaling a wall while pursuing the alleged thieves and fell down. “Those who fled i ncluded Haarish Mohammad, leader of the cattle lifting gang, and Irshad, owner of the seized truck. Haarish has been involved in 10 cases of dacoity related to animal theft,” added Arya.
According to him, at around 2.30am on Saturday, the police control room received a call claiming that cows were being loaded into a truck at Sector-1, Dwarka, and that the occupants of the truck were throwing stones at people trying to stop them.
A police vehicle responded to the call and began chasing the truck. The cattle thieves started throwing stones and firing on the police vehicle. They rammed it and ran a police picket; a second police vehicle also joined the chase; and finally, one of the bullets fired by the police punctured the truck’s tyre, forcing it to a stop, Arya explained.
The occupants tried to escape on foot under cover of gunfire but in the exchange that followed, one of them was hit.
“We are interrogating the two to nab their absconding associates,” said Shibesh Singh, DCP, Dwarka. ary, who also requested anonymity said the by-election results in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the loss the party faced in Punjab, the dip in its numbers in Gujarat, the home state of Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, are being perceived as “warning signs”. The BJP lost all the Lok Sabha seats in the recently held by-polls in UP and Bihar; two seats in Rajasthan and two assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.
“The Sangh brass has hinted at the need to change the party’s leadership at the state level in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh; there are apprehensions about the administration of states such as Haryana and Uttarakhand, which will be discussed with the BJP high command before the campaign rolls out,” the second functionary said.
April’s meeting is also a clear sign that the RSS will seek to strengthen the BJP’S election campaign, ending speculation that the Sangh is not on the same page as the party on several key issues, including economic policies.
“The RSS and the BJP are closely associated. While winning elections is crucial for the BJP, the Sangh’s larger agenda is cementing its ideology and maximising its reach. The RSS has been around even during the Congress’ rule, but it is to its advantage if the BJP comes to power; so it will pull out all the stops to help the party,” said an associate professor at Banaras Hindu University, who asked not to be named. ‘leaked’ papers on Whatsapp. Police have also identified the person who forwarded the papers to him.
“His questioning has led us to another Whatsapp group on which the papers were circulated. Apart from the six Whatsapp groups we were already looking into, our teams will now question the members of the seventh group as well,” said RP Upadhyay, special commissioner of police (crime).
He said that keeping in view the extensive investigation, two more assistant commissioners of police (ACPS) have been added to SIT, which now has two deputy commissioners of police and six assistant commissioners of police.
Joint commissioner of police (crime), Alok Kumar, who is supervising the SIT, said the questionings were leading them from one person to another, with the chain of links running into thousands.
A police officer privy to the probe said the investigation has now widened beyond Delhi and NCR and teams are likely to be sent to other states, including Jharkhand.
On Saturday, a group of students turned up at the CBSE office in Preet Vihar, demanding cancellation of the economics retest. Alleging that more papers had been leaked, they demanded a retest in all subjects or none.
“With deployment of more forces along the northern borders based on threat perception, there has to be an equal emphasis on building overall capacities including health facilities,” said a top defence ministry official familiar with the plan to upgrade medical infrastructure.
India is strengthening its deployments in the eastern sector, with the raising of a new mountain strike corps at Panagarh and stationing of front-line Sukhoi-30 fighter planes and weaponised helicopters. The military has also reactivated a string of advanced landing grounds near t he border, deployed supersonic cruise missiles and plans to base special operations aircraft in the eastern sector.
“Medical care has to be proportionate to the number of troops in a particular sector. Only then can we give our soldiers the requisite medical cover,” said the official cited above, requesting anonymity.
The panel has asked the ministry to keep it informed about how the new medical projects are shaping and identify more areas where healthcare voids exist.
Experts say it’s a step in the right direction.
“There’s an overall trend of forward posturing along the China border in view of evolving security environment,” said AS Lamba, a former vice chief.
“And in keeping with this posturing, our infrastructure for maintaining and sustaining troops, including medical facilities, has to be appropriately pushed forward,” Lamba added.