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Cross FIRs filed after cow vigilantes attack buffalo transporter
Animal cruelty charges against driver
The incident took place on the morning of March 29 in Wanwadi Bazar area and both cases were registered later that night at Wanawadi police station. (File Photo)
Pune City Police registered two cross-complaints following an incident in which a tempo transporting seven buffaloes was stopped by self-styled cow vigilantes. In one complaint the group of five to six men were booked for assaulting and wrongfully restraining the tempo driver. The driver was booked for animal cruelty for carrying seven buffaloes in a cramped space.
The incident took place on the morning of March 29 in Wanwadi Bazar area and both cases were registered later that night at Wanawadi police station.
The tempo driver identified as Papa Fakhruddin Shaikh (54), who was assaulted, worked for a trader identified as Moinoddun Qureshi of Khadki Bazar. According to Shaikh’s FIR, Qureshi had asked Shaikh to take seven buffaloes from the Marketyard area to Keshav Nagar. When the tempo reached the Wanawadi Bazar area, a car intercepted the tempo and blocked its way. Two men got down from the car and started asking Shaikh if he was carrying cows for the purpose of slaughtering them. Shaikh replied that he was carrying buffaloes. The two men then dragged Shaikh out of the tempo after they forced him to park the vehicle. Meanwhile, some people had come to the location.
In his complaint, Shaikh said the group of men then threatened to kill him if he was seen in the area and they started beating him. The group kicked and punched him on his chest and face, Shaikh alleged. The police then allegedly came to the location and rescued Shaikh. Police booked Rushikesh Kamthe and four to five other men under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 115 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 126 (Wrongful restraint), 189 (Unlawful assembly), 351 (Criminal intimidation). No arrests have been made yet, officials said.
Based on Kamthe’s complaint, an FIR was registered against Shaikh under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Police invoked section 11 of the Act which pertains to cruelty to animals. Kamthe said that after receiving information which suggested that cattle was illegally being transported for slaughter, his group had intercepted the vehicle. They found that buffaloes were being transported in a cramped space and without water or fodder.
An officer from Wanwadi police station said, “We have launched a probe in both the cases. All the accused in the assault case are being identified and we are probing if the transporter was in compliance with all norms.”
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