Cow vigilantes, high-speed chases back, weeks after fresh guidelines in Gurugram

In the latest incident on Wednesday, police arrested two cow smugglers with help from vigilantes and rescued 35 cows

Cow vigilantes continue to be in business despite police orders that such groups cannot take the law into their own hands and urging them to tip off authorities in case they spot any suspicious activity.

Cow vigilantes and police after the truck was stopped in Bhondsi. (Screengrab)

In the latest incident on Wednesday, police arrested two cow smugglers with help from vigilantes and rescued 35 cows and bulls from a truck on the Gurugram-Mumbai expressway near Bhondsi that was on its way to a slaughter house in Nuh, officers said.

Under new orders by Haryana police, cow vigilantes are not allowed to chase or intercept any vehicles but despite that, police admit, these groups routinely engage in high-speed chases.

Police said they received a tip-off from cow vigilantes in the wee hours on Wednesday that a truck loaded with cows was on way to a slaughter house in Nuh. Teams of cow vigilantes, police and the local cow protection unit chased the truck for 20km and caught hold of two suspects.

A case was registered under sections 13(1) and 13(2) of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015, at Bhondsi police station on Wednesday. The suspects were identified as Mukesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh and Mustaq Khan of Nuh.

Police said they opened the truck and found 35 cows and bulls loaded in the closed container without any ventilation.

Gurugram police did not respond to a question oin why cow vigilantes were allowed to chase the men transporting cattle.

“The suspects could not provide any invoice for the purchase of the cattle and had no documents related to their purchase. We are questioning them to know the details of people who are part of the smuggling gang. A team will be sent to Noida to check from where they bought the cattle or whether those were stolen from different areas,” Singh said.

The cow vigilantes said they were involved only in the chase and helped police and the cow protection unit as they have experience in handling such situations.

Mansingh Raghav, a member of the Bajrang Dal, who is also a complainant in the case, said they were keeping a close watch on trucks moving towards Nuh around 2pm.

“We saw a fully covered truck coming towards Rajiv Chowk. We signalled it to stop but the driver accelerated and took the Sohna Elevated Road and we started chasing the truck. Meanwhile, we alerted our team members who had reached the Ghamroj Toll Plaza and they tried to intercept the vehicle but the driver broke the boom barrier and fled towards Bhondsi,” he said.

Abhishek Gaur, another member of the Bajrang Dal, said they had collected hundreds of nails and glass pieces which they threw before the truck to puncture the tyres in an attempt to stop the speeding vehicle.

The cow vigilantes recorded videos of the chase and how the driver risked his life by speeding despite the front tyre being ripped off.

In CCTV footage recovered from Ghamroj Toll Plaza, the speeding truck is seen breaking through the boom barrier even as six vigilantes were trying to stop the vehicle.

Gurugram police said they will write to their Nuh counterparts to check slaughter houses to prevent illegal killing of animals.

On March 17, the Gurugram district administration set up a task force to crack down on cow vigilantes and work for the rescue and rehabilitation of stray cattle, a week after the Haryana government asked districts to set up special committees as mandated by the state’s law.

On March 17, HT reported the lack of such committees and how this allows vigilantism to thrive.

The task force has 11 members -- six government officials, including the deputy commissioner as the chairman, three people nominated by the state Gau Seva Ayog, and two gau sevaks nominated by the deputy commissioner.

Deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said they will write to Gurugram police to take action against the people involved in violence and chasing smugglers without permission of the task force.

“I have directed the district-level Cow Protection Task Force to gather more information about the people involved in this rescue operation and in what capacity,” he said.

Yadav said directions were passed that if any cow protection group gets a tip-off about cattle smuggling, they should inform the nearest police station and the Cow Protection Task Force but they are again violating the law. “Action will be taken against any group involved in chasing smugglers on their own,” he said.