Journalism of Courage
Eighteen carcasses of cattle, including of some cows, were recovered from hadda rodi (animal dumping ground) of village Bilaspur in sub-division Nihal Singh Wala of Moga district in the wee hours of Tuesday. The police said the post-mortem report was awaited to confirm the number of cows and oxen of the 18 carcasses recovered.
Watch What Else Is Making News
The police have arrested eight suspects in the case, of which four are from Punjab and rest from Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh. They said the raid was conducted in a ‘joint operation’ with Gau Raksha Dal, a cow vigilante group, after they received a tip-off of cattle being slaughtered at the spot.
Almost 25 cows have also been recovered from village Tharaj on Bhagta Bhai Ke road after one of the suspects told the police about them. They were shifted to government-run cow shelter (gaushala) Kishanpura on the orders of Moga deputy commissioner.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Moga SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor said, “Not only skeletons, but carcasses with flesh have also been recovered, which indicates that slaughtering was in process when the raid was conducted. Most of them have limbs and heads missing. A medical board has been formed which collected samples. Report will confirm how many of them were oxen and cows. Prima facie, six of them appear to be cows and rest oxen, but we cannot confirm it since outer skin layer is also missing in some of them.”
The arrested suspects from Saharanpur were identified as Zubaid (45) and Saleem Khan, Abdul and Usman, all in their twenties. As per police, this gang from UP in connivance with suspects from Punjab were supplying beef to eateries and other clients in UP.
The arrested suspects from Punjab are Paramjit Singh of Tharaj of Moga, Lakhvir from Nathana of Bathinda, Banta of Muktsar and Mangal Singh of Kotla Mehar Singh Wala of Moga.
“The suspects from Punjab were working as raakhey (security guards who protect farmers’ fields overnight). They claimed they abandoned stray animals in jungles, but actually they were gathering them at village Tharaj. It is still a matter of investigation how this gang operated, but these Punjab men used to supply stray cattle for slaughtering. The kingpin of the gang, Paramjit Singh, told us about 25-30 other cows hidden at Tharaj and we recovered them alive. Their plan was to slaughter them too,” said a police officer.
Punjab Gau Sewa commission chairman Kimti Bhagat also visited Moga. He said, “I have directed deputy commissioner to shift alive cows to Kishanpura cowshed of the government. The carcasses have been buried after taking samples for post-mortem.”
An FIR has been registered on the complaint of Sandeep Kumar, Bathinda unit president of Gau Raksha Dal, under the Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act at Nihal Singh Wala police station.
Nixon Singh, president of Punjab Gau Raksha Dal, claimed, “There were seven other suspects who managed to flee due to fog when we raided the spot. Police should arrest them soon.”
Meanwhile, the markets and small shops in the town Nihal Singh Wala remained shut Tuesday and heavy police force was deployed to avert any clash. However, normalcy returned after the burial of carcasses and markets reopened.
