Beef Row: Khanna cop suspended after cow vigilante says ‘negligence in disposal of recovered meat’

On the night of Saturday (September 9), Kumar, along with his aides, claimed that they had confiscated a truck in Khanna, which allegedly had beef hidden in fish and poultry meat boxes. The truck, Kumar said, was on its way from Uttar Pradesh to Jammu & Kashmir when it was stopped. The driver of the vehicle, Kumar also claimed, had allegedly also tried to run them over when flagged down and asked to stop.

Khanna police had later registered an FIR in the case and recovered 310 boxes of meat.

The FIR was registered at Khanna city-2 police station against truck driver, Javed, a resident of Pampore in Kashmir, his helper Vikas from Nepal, and two others — Aswad of Uttar Pradesh and another yet-to-be-identified man, who is the owner of Kahlon Fish Company, Srinagar, under sections 307, 429 of IPC and under sections of the Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act.

Kumar claimed that Javed and Vikas were transporting beef, which was hidden in fish containers, after picking it up from Aswad in UP. The duo was scheduled to supply the beef to a company in Srinagar. Police arrested Javed and Vikas from the spot.

On Tuesday (September 12), Kumar and his aides from several other Hindu organisations blocked the highway in Khanna alleging that the police was not taking the case “seriously” and was trying to “help” the suspects. They further alleged that police had failed to “properly conduct last rites of the remains of the cow and dispose off its meat”. The cow vigilantes further alleged that police was giving “VIP treatment” to the arrested suspects and they were “eating apples in police lock-up.”

During the early hours of Wednesday, the boxes allegedly containing beef were buried and disposed off by policemen, in the presence of administration officials after Tuesday’s protest by cow vigilantes, led by Kumar.

A police officer said that they had taken samples of the recovered meat and sent it for testing to ascertain if it was actually beef.

Contacted, SSP Kondal said that there “were several other complaints against the inspector and he had to be removed as he wasn’t dealing with the public in a proper manner.”

“This wasn’t the only complaint, there were many others. In this case, the samples have been sent for testing to the laboratory to confirm if the recovered meat was beef or not. The complainants have alleged that the alleged remains of the cow was not being disposed off in a proper manner and had been confiscated by the police. The remains of the cow were buried respectfully after taking samples for testing,” said the SSP.

Contacted, former-SHO Inspector Kuljinder Singh said that his suspension was completely “unjustified” as “a procedure had to be followed for disposal of cow meat.”

“I could not have disposed off the recovered meat without taking samples for testing. There is a legal procedure which has to be followed in such sensitive cases. It is not even confirmed whether the recovered meat is beef or not. Hence, it was important to collect samples for testing. There are allegations from the driver of the confisticated truck that the complainant and his aides forcefully took away his vehicle at gunpoint. Everything had to be investigated from all angles,” said the inspector.