Minor among 3 held in Assam for carrying beef

Three construction workers, including a minor, were booked on charges of carrying beef and hurting religious sentiment in Assam.

The police said two people have been arrested and a minor has been apprehended under the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950 at Jorhat after some residents filed an FIR, accusing them of displaying beef at a public place.

The labourers, said to be from Bangladesh, bought half-a-kilogram of beef on April 4. On their way home, they allegedly showed the meat to a shopkeeper at Kenduguri in Jorhat, saying they would cook it for dinner.

The police said some people objected to their behaviour on the ground that there was a temple at the area.

The police cattle slaughter is banned under Section 5 of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950.

“An FIR was registered with Bhugdoi police outpost under Kenduguri police station,” a police officer said on Thursday.

The accused were produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate on Wednesday night, which remanded the duo identified as Shah Zaman Haque of Dhubri and Ashur Rahman of Kokrajhar, to police custody.

The minor was sent to a juvenile home in Lichubari.

The police said the three were working at the site of an industrial training institute on the outskirts of Jorhat.

Officials of the district animal husbandry department at Jorhat said the meat seized by police has been sent to a forensic laboratory for examination.

This was the first time since the BJP came to power in Assam that the police took action in a beefrelated case.