‘Cow smuggler’ held after 7km chase in Gurugram

A 28-year-old alleged cow smuggler was arrested and 28 cows and bulls were recovered from a truck on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) near Bilaspur on Tuesday.

A 28-year-old alleged cow smuggler was arrested and 28 cows and bulls were recovered from a truck on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) near Bilaspur on Tuesday, police officers aware of the matter said.

The arrested suspect on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway. (HT Photo)

According to a complaint filed by Ashok Kumar, a resident of Pukharpur village and member of the cow vigilante team, that around 3:00am on Tuesday he got an information that a truck would travel to Mewat via KMP from Badli and in which cows would be ferried to slaughter houses.

After receiving information, sub inspector Krishan Kumar of district Cow Protection Task Force, Ashok Kumar and others reached the KMP and put up the barricades. Soon a truck was seen coming and it was signalled to stop but it did not comply with the instructions.

The cow vigilantes along with the cow protection force chased the vehicle of the alleged cattle smugglers for over 7 kilometres on the KMP expressway and caught one of them, while four others managed to flee.

“The police’s cow task force and members of the cow vigilante team started chasing the vehicle and a white car was moving ahead of the truck. While the tire of the truck burst, the driver of the truck drove it for about 7 kilometres on KMP. Later, the accused started running and left the container on the roadside. We caught one of them,” said sub-inspector Kumar.

Police said the suspects had loaded the cows by allegedly stealing them from different areas of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh.

The suspect was identified as Nafees Khan, a resident of Alawalpur in Nuh, said police.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Vijay Pratap Singh said that one cow and one bull were found dead in the truck and the post-mortem reports suggested suffocation as the cause of deaths.

On March 17, the district administration had set up a task force to crack down on cow vigilantes and work for the rescue and rehabilitation of stray cattle. The move came after HT reported how the lack of such committees is among the various factors that allow vigilantism to thrive, playing out in groups targeting people in the name of cow smuggling.

DCP Singh said that during the chase the suspects started firing on the police teams and cow vigilantes. “A bullet hit the front tire of the truck and it lost balance and had to stop,” he said.

Police said all the animals recovered by the police team with the help of the cow protectors were sent to Manesar cow shelter.

When HT reached out to Gurugram police, officials did not respond to a question on why cow vigilantes were allowed to chase the men transporting the cattle.

Assistant commissioner of police (crime) Varun Dahiya said that the suspect could not provide any invoice for the purchase of the cattle and had no related documents. “We are questioning him to know the details of people who are part of the smuggling gang,” he said.

Following the complaint, an FIR was registered against the cattle smugglers under sections 279 (rash driving), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 13(1), 13(2) of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan act, 2015 at Bilaspur police station on Tuesday.

Abhishek Gaur, a member of the Bajrang Dal, said they recorded videos of the chase and how the driver risked his life by speeding despite the front tire being ripped off. “The driver had started driving on the wrong side of the expressway, risking lives of many commuters. If we had not chased, they would have fled to Nuh,” he said.