Missing buffaloes keep Delhi cops on their toes

Victim 1: “Kali Bhains jiske seeng neeche ki taraf hain (black buffalo with horns pointing down)”

Victim 2: “Bhains jiske seeng chhote chhote hain aur poonch 1.5 inch ki hai (buffalo with small horns and a 1.5-inch-long tail)”

Victim 3: “Seeng bade bade hain. Do mahine mein bacha dene wali hai (Having big horns and going to deliver a calf in two months)”

› The thieves did not take the cow and her calves because it is risky. They will attract more eyes on highways at night

A SENIOR POLICE OFFICER

A PWD worker’s complaint of three missing buffaloes, with the above description, has been keeping Delhi Police busy since the last 10 days.

The buffaloes were stolen from the house of a Public Works Department employee in southwest Delhi’s Najafgarh on October 29. The owner, Sushil Kumar, lodged a complaint the next day when he found the buffaloes and four calves missing from the cowshed. The theft was caught on CCTV cameras outside Kumar’s house. The footage, however, is grainy and unclear.

Kumar’s son Aakash told HT that they have a cow too but the thieves did not take it away. “The cow and two calves were outside the shed. The thieves could have been stolen it too but they did not touch them. The CCTV footage shows four men who came near my house in a pick-up van. We have given this footage to the police,” Aakash said.

Police suspect the role of cattle-thieves from Haryana, who have in the past come to Delhi to steal cattle. A senior officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “It is clear the thieves did not take the cow and her calves because it is risky. They will attract more eyes on the highways at night. They may even be stopped by cow-vigilante groups active in parts of southwest and outer Delhi.”

Police have registered an FIR against ‘unknown persons’ under IPC Section 380, which pertains to theft. A police team, led by a police sub-inspector of Chhawla police station in southwest Delhi, is looking into the complaint.