Harassed butcher, Qasam Qureshi vows to not get son into business

Over March and April, three cases were registered at different police stations in Pune and Baramati against Qureshi, a resident of Baramati. The complainants in all cases were ‘gau raksha’ activists from Pune who complained to police about “illegal” meat being ferried in tempos hired by him, Qureshi said.

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In each case, the tempos were stopped, the meat was taken off, and cases were registered against Qureshi and the driver under sections 5A and 5D of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act for transporting beef procured from outside the state.

“The activists threatened my drivers, took the tempos to nearby police stations and ensured that cases were registered against me. I showed police my licence and the receipt issued by local civic officials and vets confirming that the meat was that of water buffalo, but they still registered cases against me,” Qureshi said.

He said that he also faced losses that had mounted to Rs 20 lakh, and had now decided to look for some other means of income for himself and his 22-year old son, Hasan.

The Bombay High Court on Friday struck down Section 5D (possession of meat slaughtered outside the state), saying it “infringes a person’s right to privacy”, and Section 9B (imprisonment of up to one year and fine of Rs 2,000 for possession of beef) on the ground that it was “unconstitutional and violative of Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Indian Constitution”.

In March 2015, the BJP government tightened the ban on cow slaughter by also banning slaughter of bulls and bullocks, and making the sale of bulls and bullocks for slaughter a crime, punishable with a jail term of up to five years and a fine of Rs 10,000.

Saddiq Qureshi, a member of the Bombay Suburban Beef Dealers Association that was one of the parties to the PIL that was decided by the high court, explained the losses of a trader whose tempo is seized. “Whenever meat or cattle are seized, the cattle are sent to a goshala, and the meat to a forensic lab for testing, the cost of which is incurred by the accused. The accused, who are mainly the driver, cleaner or the butcher, are mostly Muslim; however the source of the meat, who is mostly the farmer and in many cases Hindu, is never touched by police,” Qureshi alleged.

“The accused have to spend over Rs 1 lakh to engage a lawyer and get bail. After that, another lakh is spent in getting the tempo released, which remains in the custody of the police until the FSL reports come. Then the accused have to shell out another lakh in court, and in police stations visits. In all of this, the small butchers are the worst affected,” Qureshi said.

“Once it is established that there is no illegality, we go to the goshalas where the cattle are alleged to have been sent, but in the most cases, we can’t find them. The police seldom takes action against the caretakers,” he added.

The Association claimed that an internal survey on bovines sent to goshalas after raids had found that 11.64 lakh heads of cattle had gone missing across the state since the Act came into force. The findings were part of the HC petition. “The government has no answer,” Qureshi said.

In Baramati, Qureshi said he was yet to receive a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) application he filed asking why meat that had been certified by local civic officials and vets as legal, was seized by police.

“I have three daughters to marry off and a son to educate; with losses mounting every day, I have been pushed to the brink. While ensuring the security of the animals is a state matter, what about its people? Aren’t we entitled to an occupation? The farmers who sell their cattle are seldom booked but we, who have all the legal documents in place, are always targeted. Is it because we are Muslim?” he said.

Some 250 km from Baramati, in Kalwa, a satellite town of Mumbai, a tempo hired by brothers Zahir and Kayyum Qureshi was stopped and seized by police last month.

“We had hired the tempo in which the meat was being transported, and therefore, we have to pay its owner until it is released by police. The rent for a day is around Rs 2,500, it has been over a month now, and we still haven’t got the tempo,” the brothers told The Indian Express.

For these Qureshi brothers, the recent HC order has little significance. “The judgment has defused the terror in people’s minds about the consumption of the beef, but there is hardly any relief for us traders. Even if we get the meat from outside Maharashtra, where will get a receipt for it? And even if we do so, will the police believe its authenticity? The only relief is that the onus to prove our guilt is now on the police, which means we don’t have to shell out money on the testing,” Zahir said.

The Bombay Suburban Beef Dealers Association plans to now move the apex court. Mohammed Ali, president of the Association, said, “Half the battle is won, there’s half to go still.”

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