Rajasthan BJYM leader among three booked for ‘assault’ on cow traders

“There is no question of assault. They sustained the injury when they tried to run away and fell, injuring their nose,” Sharma said.

Circle Officer (Niwai) Sandeep Saraswat said cattle were being transported in a 50-foot container. Police have registered a case against Wahid, Aalam and Sadiq under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act.

The FIR of assault, registered on a complaint lodged by Wahid’s brother Mujahid, who said his brother, along with Aalam and Sadiq, trade at cattle fairs in the state and had purchased cattle for the upcoming cattle fair at Merta, Nagaur.

According to the complaint, they were returning to Niwai in Tonk early Sunday (March 5) when they were waylaid by 10 to 12 men “who identified themselves as gau rakshaks, and (said they were) associated with Azad Hind Gaushala.”

According to the complaint, the group of alleged attackers was led by Narendra Sharma, Karan Singh Rajawat and Baljeet Choudhary, alias Balram. It said the group of men were armed with sticks, metal rods and carried two countrymade pistols, and “brutally assaulted” the three men.

A few in the group also recorded videos of the assault, the FIR stated. Religious slurs were allegedly hurled by the accused. The group shared some videos of the assault on social media to “spread religious animosity”, the complaint mentioned.

It said the assault continued until police arrived at the scene.

Asked about a video where Baljeet is seen allegedly hitting the three men, Sharma told The Indian Express that it is “not an original video”.

Circle Officer Saraswat said the incident occurred around 2.30 am on March 5. “As soon as we received information, I reached the spot within a few minutes to prevent any untoward incident. There were 49 cattle in the container, all males. We brought them (Wahid and others) to the police station,” he said.

“Later on, videos surfaced on social media in which one person is seen slapping them, so we took a written complaint from them and had an FIR lodged against BJYM district president Narendra Sharma, Karan Singh and Baljeet,” Saraswat said.

Sharma said, “The truck was full of cows. We caught it and handed it over to police. Police then arrested the cow smugglers. There is no question of assault…”

He also said, “Karan Singh is the city general secretary of BJP. We are all associated with Azad Hind Gaushala.”

Sharma said police have not approached him yet for questioning.

The FIR against Sharma and the other two was lodged under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation).