MP village on boil over discovery of cow carcasses

The recovery of scores of cow carcasses from the outskirts of Multanpura village, a Muslim-dominated village in Mandsaur district, has thrown the place into a turmoil. Unable to bear police pressure, the village has taken an extraordinary step of getting the gramsabha to announce the ostracisation of 28 accused and their families, which was passed on Sunday. Several residents signed it in presence of a couple of government officials. “It helped in arresting the exodus of people from this village as innocent villagers were being held,” sarpanch Mohammed Salim Gulla told The Indian Express on Tuesday. Villagers started leaving the place when even those without a remote possibility of involvement found themselves on the list of accused.

Last week’s recovery had kept Mandsaur town tensed for days. A series of bandhs called by Hindu organisations in neighbouring towns has ensured that there’s no let up in tension. Under pressure to act, the police and the administration moved in quickly, detaining nine persons under NSA and naming 50 others, most from Multanpura, as accused.

“Their ration cards will be cancelled and they won’t get any facilities from the panchayat and the villagers will sever all ties with them,” said Gulla. According to him several cases had been lodged against the minority community in the past for their involvement in similar activities.

“We are not sure who slaughtered the cows. No one witnessed it, but we suspect them because they fled the village,” he said. Collector Nitesh Vyas admitted there was no direct evidence against those arrested or those on the run. While the administration had put the number of people externed to 57, Hindu organisations and BJP leaders had said that the number was more than 125. Meanwhile, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has already made public his government’s intention to pass a stringent legislation against cow slaughter.