Two held for cow smuggling, four bovines rescued
Bharatpur police arrested two men on Sunday on charges of smuggling cows to Haryana allegedly for slaughter. Four cows were recovered from their possession. The two opened fire at the police team when intercepted, police said.
After a tip-off, police raided the hills between Taira and Takora villages under Kaman police station and intercepted the two trying to cross over to Haryana. “They opened fire at our team, but luckily no one was hurt,” said Kaman police station SHO Neki Ram.
Police recovered two country-made weapons with four live cartridges from their possession. “They were taking the cows from Hathiya village of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh to Jakhokar, Haryana, through Kaman, Bharatpur, for slaughter,” the police officer said.
The two have been identified as Sajid Mev and Manoj Mev of Hathiya village. Police said they are inter-state cattle smugglers. They were arrested under various sections of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.
The rescued cows were shifted to Kalavata cow shelter in Kaman.
As per police data, due to its proximity to Haryana and easy access to villages on the other side of the state border, Bharatpur villages prove an easy conduit for bovine smuggling. Different police stations of the district have registered 65 cases each in 2015 and 2016 and 27 cases in 2017 (until May) under the bovine act.
An average of seven cases of cow smuggling were registered every month this year in Alwar, and five in Bharatpur.
Rajasthan registered 389 cases in 2017. One third of these were registered in Alwar and Bharatpur, making the two districts the hub of illegal trade. Police filed charge sheets in 90% of the cases. The remaining cases have either been dropped or are still being investigated.
In September 2017, Rajasthan government appointed additional director general of police (crime) Pankaj Kumar Singh as the nodal officer to curb cow vigilantism.
Additional superintendents of police in Alwar and Bharatpur were made the district nodal officers. The appointments followed direction by the Supreme Court on preventing cow vigilantism.
The state government set up 39 police outposts in October 2014 to prevent cattle smuggling, six each in Alwar and Bharatpur.
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