Bulandshahr police on Saturday booked a government veterinary doctor, a gram pradhan and a block officer for animal cruelty after a local BJP MLA staged a protest alleging largescale deaths of cattle at the government cow shelter of Nagla Karan village in the district. BJP MLA from Anupshahr, Sanjay Sharma, on Friday evening camped outside the cow shelter on a cot demanding action against local officials and sarpanch, and alleged that a large number of cows died at the shelter in the past few months. As he and his supporters continued with the demonstration, District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar and other senior officers reached the village urging the MLA to end the protest. After the MLA refused to relent, police filed an FIR against veterinary doctor Chandrajeet Singh, gram pradhan Vikas Raghav, and Block Officer (Lakhaothi) Sripal Singh under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. "I have also ordered a separate inquiry into the allegations made by MLA Sanjiv Sharma. We will definitely take a stern action after we get the report of the inquiry," the District Magistrate said. The 50-year-old BJP legislator, who had earlier raised the issue of cow slaughter, said that he have been repeatedly asking the officials to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the cow shelters in the district. “A transparent SOP will help residents to know what is happening with cattle in each of these 154 shelters in the district. I also spoke to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the issue on Saturday morning and he said that these shelters should be taken care by people's representatives like us,” Sharma told The Sunday Express on phone.
