Uttarakhand police team ‘held hostage, assaulted’ by crowd after man suspected of cow meat smuggling found dead in pond

According to a statement from Haridwar police, the Cow Protection Squad in the Kotwali Gangnahar locality stopped a suspicious scooter rider in Madhopur village in the early hours of Sunday, following reports of cow meat smuggling. Police claimed that the rider then abandoned the scooter and fled, before jumping into a village pond where he drowned.

However, the crowd that surrounded the police team accused them of killing him and throwing him into the pond, police said.

Three FIRs have been filed in connection with the alleged cow meat smuggling, the crowd’s alleged assault on the police team, and for allegedly trying to incite hostility through social media.

In the first FIR, complainant Sub Inspector Sharad Singh said his team was returning to Saliyar after patrolling in Madhopur village around 1.30 pm when a scooter rider suddenly sped into a side street, where he lost control, and fell, but quickly got up and fled, the FIR said.

“We suspected a crime had been committed when the person fled, leaving the scooter behind. Upon inspecting the area with a flashlight, we found a blue plastic bag near the scooter containing 35 kg of pinkish, fatty meat in seven transparent bags… We opened the trunk and discovered an additional 15 kg of similar meat, which, based on initial assessment, appeared to be from a bovine animal,” Singh said in the FIR.

He then alleged that a crowd soon gathered, surrounded his team, threatened and misbehaved with a constable, and took them hostage. “During this, some in the crowd made the recovered meat and the scooter used for transport disappear. The crowd accused us of shooting their man and throwing him into the nearby pond… Around 100-150 people obstructed our work, held us hostage, abused, beat us, threatened to kill us, and removed evidence from the scene,” he said.

A case was registered under sections 190 (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 351(3) (threats of death or severe Injury), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), and 121 (1) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), and sections of the Uttarakhand Protection of Cow Progeny Act, 2007, against one Alauddin and about 100-150 unknown persons.

The man’s body was recovered from the pond and sent for postmortem. The family later buried the deceased after the postmortem.

In a second FIR, complainant and Gangnahar police station in-charge Govind Kumar said that upon arriving at the scene, he saw the crowd gathered near the graveyard in Madhopur village. This FIR also said the crowd held the cow protection squad hostage and that they accused police of killing Wasim. This FIR named seven people and over 100 unknown persons.

Haridwar police also said misleading and false information was being shared on Facebook and X, and that this could incite hostility between different communities.

Another FIR was filed on this matter, and four people were booked under sections 197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 353(2) of the BNS for allegedly trying to incite feelings of enmity and hatred between different communities by misusing the social media.

Haridwar SSP Parmendra Dobhal said it was wrong to give a religious colour to the incident.