Man ferrying cattle killed as truck overturns during Gurugram police chase

A man was killed and six injured when their truck overturned while fleeing police on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway during a cow smuggling attempt.

A man who was transporting cows was crushed to death and his six accomplices were injured when their pickup truck overturned while they were trying to flee from police on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway in the early hours of Thursday, police said, adding that four cows were also injured in the accident and have been rescued.

The pickup truck on Thursday. (HT Photo)

The incident took place at 3.30am when police, acting on a tip, spotted the accused putting a cow in their truck near the Manesar bus stand. On spotting police, the accused began speeding away and police started chasing them. However, the accused got stuck in a traffic jam near the Panchgaon Chowk. As police caught up with them, the truck driver tried to take the vehicle over the road divider and onto the opposite carriageway.

But the truck overturned and one of the accused was crushed beneath it. The other accused, who were injured in the impact, abandoned the truck and tried to flee on foot but were chased and arrested by the cow protection cell of the Gurugram police.

Police lifted the vehicle with the help of commuters and pulled out the accused who was trapped under it. Police rushed all seven accused to the government hospital in Manesar but doctors declared Mohammad Shahzad of Salaheri village in Nuh dead on arrival.

The other accused were identified as Mohammad Munna, Mafik Ali, Mubarakh alias Utwadia, Shaukeen alias Sunda, Mohammad Irshad alias Langra and Mohammad Salam. Police said Salam is from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh while the others were from Nuh. Shaukeen was the truck driver, police said.

Police said that the four cows’ limbs were tied together and their heads were tightly tied to each other so they couldn’t move at all.

The accused have been remanded into police custody for detailed interrogation to trace and arrest others involved in the smuggling and slaughtering racket, said Deepak Kumar Jewaria, deputy commissioner of police, Manesar.

He said that police conducted the operation after receiving a tip that cattle smugglers would come to Manesar to steal cows and take them to Nuh to slaughter them.

“Police were trying to locate them when they spotted the accused lifting a cow near the Manesar bus stand and the chase started. The accused had managed to escape from us but got trapped in night traffic of long route vehicles near the Panchgaon chowk,” the DCP said.

The DCP said that the accused were habitual offenders as Shaukeen had 18 criminal cases registered against him in Gurugram, Nuh and Rewari of attempt to murder, sexual assault of a minor, cow smuggling, theft, and burglary.

“Shahzad, the deceased, has five cases registered against him — two of attempted murder and cow smuggling in Gurugram and three more cases in Nuh. Irshad has three and Mafik and Mubarak each have one case registered against them either in Nuh or Gurugram,” the DCP said.

Police said that raids were being carried out in Nuh to nab those who were involved in the cow smuggling racket. Police said that they will destroy the illegal slaughterhouse after locating it.

A first information report was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and the Gausamvardhan Act at the Manesar police station on Thursday.