As many as 10 persons, including a minor, have been arrested for running an illegal meat packaging factory in Kapurthala’s Phagwara.
The police have confiscated 29.32 quintals of banned meat from their possession.
The case has been registered under sections 299 (hurting religious sentiments), 325 (mischief by killing animals) and 111 (organised crime) of the BNS, and other sections of the Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Police have apprehended main accused Vijay Kumar of Phagwara along with his key accomplice Husan Lal of Chachoki village of Kapurthala district.
Other accused have been identified as Mukhtiyar Alam, Azaad, Zakir Hussain, Rehana Alam and Minjar Ali, all residents of Malda district of West Bengal, and Arsad of Uttar Pradesh and Madan Shah of Chachrari village in Jalandhar district.
Phagwara superintendent of police Rupinder Kaur said that the samples of the meat have been sent for further chemical examination. In the preliminary investigation, it came to the fore that only the packaging process was carried out in the unit set up at a local dhaba, while the slaughtering process was performed at some other place.