Smugglers use poor women to take cows to slaughter houses in Haryana ›

Women cow smugglers tie the cattle to bullock carts and transport the animals to the slaughter houses. BANTI PRADHAN, member of a cow vigilante group

BHARATPUR : Cow smugglers in Bhagalpur’s Mewar, have adopted newer ways to smuggle bovines to the slaughter houses in neighbouring Haryana to hood wink police by engaging impoverished women to act as conduits, officials said.

Interstate cow smugglers are hiring women to smuggle cattle into the neighbouring Haryana as women are more likely to evade police dragnet as they do not raise suspicion of being involved in smuggling, said members of cow protection groups.

Cow smugglers earlier used vehicles to transport bovines but due to the fear police checking, they now employ women from impoverished families and lure them with money to transport the bovines on foot to the slaughter houses, said Shishupal Vidyarthi, president of Gadhi Sambal Das cow shelter and member of the district cattle cruelty committee. Women who belong to poor families are easy target of smugglers, as they can pass off as cattle herders and nobody suspects them of being cow smugglers, said Banti Pradhan, a member of a cow vigilante group.

“Women cow smugglers tie the cattle to bullock carts and transport the animals to the slaughter houses,” he said.

Police data too shows that women are being increasing employed as cow smugglers.

A number of women cow smugglers, Deepo Kaur, Sudesh Kaur and Haruni from Kharsanki village in Alwar’s Govindgarh, were arrested in 2016 by the police in Sikri, police records show. Another woman smuggler, Jaibuvar from Lawana Dhandi village in the district, was arrested in 2017 by the Sikri police.

Police have arrested a number of women involved in cow smuggling, said district superintendent of police Anil Kumar Tank.

“Local residents inform police about cow smugglers who transport cows through the villages to slaughter houses in Haryana.”

Police arrested three women, identified as Asarfi, Nurjahan and Rani, all residents of Nadrai village of Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district, while they were smuggling six bovines through Bharatpur’s Mewat region on January 28, he said.

In the last two year, police have arrested seven women under different sections of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995, police said.

According to police, cows are sold for ₹ 2000 to ₹2,500 each to the smugglers who transport the animals to Haryana for slaughter.

Smugglers in turn sell the cows for ₹70,000 to ₹75,000 to the slaughter houses in Haryana, apart from selling beef for ₹100 for every kg and the skin for ₹ 500 to ₹700.

The state government has set up six cow protection police outposts at Pasta Mod, Ghamari, Amruka, Bedham, Sikri Fatak and Nagar in the district to detect cow smuggling, from where cows are known to be smuggled into neighbouring Haryana.